Garden Borders

Garden borders and edgings are very useful for marking the edge of your garden beds and delimiting different areas of your garden. Garden edging will also stop (or minimize) soil, pebbles, or mulch from spilling from one area into another. You don't want your garden soil washing onto your paths or your mulch migrating onto your lawn. Garden borders can also slow the spread of weeds, including grass invading your garden beds. They will also help protect your flowers and vegetables from getting damaged by a weed trimmer or lawn mower and certain types of garden borders may be able to keep dogs, chickens, or other animals out of your garden beds.

Interlocking Faux Stone Garden Border Edging available from Amazon.

Not only are garden borders useful, but they also look good and can make quite a feature in your garden.

This Spring, why not dress up your garden with a new border. Here are some ideas and suggestions for you to try.

© Copyright GonnaFly.

Logs used as garden borders in my parents' garden

Wood makes a good building material because it is strong but not too heavy, relatively easy to work with, and not very expensive. But when timber is exposed to the elements (or just being in contact with wet ground), there can be problems with rot and / or insects destroying it.

In the past this problem was solved by pressure treating timber with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) but, this treated timber is now not available to purchase for your garden because the arsenic can leach out of the wood - not good for your health or the environment! Alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) is now most often used instead, but you may still wish to avoid the chemicals used to treat this wood, especially if you have children. For more information, read this article about using treated timber in your garden.

If you want to avoid these treated timbers, you could always use redwood, cedar, or white oak which tend to be more rot resistant than other woods. You could also use other untreated lumber and be prepared to replace it every few years. Or you could use faux wood.

These are not your full-sized picket fences, but little garden edges to decorate your garden beds or place as borders around your trees.

© Copyright Anika Malone

and licensed for reuse under the CC BY 2.0 License.

Picture © Copyright GonnaFly.

There are many ways to use bricks and pavers as garden edging.

For example, you could make a sawtooth edging (bricks laid at an angle like in the picture above). Read instructions for installing a sawtooth brick edging just in soil or in concrete.

You could make a mini wall out of bricks or pavers built on top of the ground.

You could embed a course of bricks or pavers in the soil so they are flush with the ground.

Be careful to fill any holes in the bricks so that they won't be a haven for snails or slugs. Also if the bricks are laid so that the holes run vertically and these holes are just filled with soil, you may get weeds growing in the holes. But you could also utilize these spots to plant your own choice of plants - ground covers, herbs, etc.

These decorative metal edgings look very attractive but are not likely to stop your mulch from spilling out of your garden bed. They may be good enough to keep your dog from digging in your vegetable patch, provided he is not too energetic or too big! Carefully check the length of each piece as some of these sections are quite short. Then calculate how many pieces you will need to buy to complete the border.

© Copyright Crinklecrankle.com

and licensed for reuse under the CC BY 2.0 License.

Concrete is very solid and durable and, if done correctly, it is likely to outlast most other types of borders. You can buy pre-cast concrete border sections (from a local nursery) or pour your own concrete using molds. If you are pouring your own concrete using molds, you can color and texture the concrete to match or contrast with any existing concrete.

© Copyright Tobyotter

and licensed for reuse under the CC BY 2.0 License.

1. Use recycled bottles:

   - Instructions for making a garden border with lights from recycled blue bottles

   - Instructions for creating a water or wine bottle garden border

   - Pictures of colorful bottles used as a border for a garden bed

2. Wheels:

   - Picture of a garden privacy screen created from old metal wheels

   - Make a herb garden from an old wagon wheel. The spokes mark the borders between sections.

3. Coat hangers:

   - Instructions for making garden edging from old wire coat hangers

4. China dinner plates:

   - Picture of a garden edging made from china dinner plates

5. Tires / tyres:

   - Ideas for reusing old tires / tyres as garden planters. I would want to research more before planting vegetables or herbs in them.

© Copyright Aly1963

and licensed for reuse under the CC BY 2.0 License.

A massed planting of flowers or other plants may form an attractive border on your garden bed or along a path. Often a border plant will be a low-grower, such as sweet alyssum, petunias, nasturtiums, and geraniums, so as not to cast shade on the other plants, but it depends on the intended function of the border. If the planting is thick enough, it may deter the spreading of weeds. A prickly plant used as a border may stop some animals from getting into your prized flower patch.

When choosing plants for your border, don't restrict yourself to flowers only. Some plants have interesting foliage (color or texture) that will retain their appeal all through the year, not just during the flowering season.