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New Year’s Resolutions for the Garden |
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Edging
Slicing along the garden-bed edge with a straight spade once
or twice a season is often enough to keep most lawns from encroaching
into small gardens, and vice versa. Yet, this is time-consuming
for large gardens and insufficient for gardens competing with
invasive lawn species. For this reason, I've resolved to install
more edging next spring and hopefully reduce the time I spend
ripping out crabgrass and other garden-bed crashers in the summer.
Fig. 2 – Keep grass and weeds from encroaching on your
garden by installing edging around your beds.
Keep in mind that not all types of edging will save you time.
Edging that is set flush or almost flush to the ground is indeed
a time-saver since it can be mowed over, resulting in a cleanly
trimmed line between the lawn and the garden bed. Edging that
rises well above the ground – such as a low stone wall – can
be a beautiful addition to the garden, but also less of a time-saver
because you will need to trim the strip of grass along the edge
that the mower cannot reach.
Individual pieces of edging – such as short pieces of wood set
into the ground – are quite easy to install in either a straight
line or a curving pattern, but unless they are perfectly placed,
they will leave gaps through which roots of crabgrass or other
invasive species can spread. Long, continuous strips of edging
can be frustrating to install, but result in the advantage of
few or no gaps.
Remembering
The final step, of course, is to remember to carry out these
resolutions before the gardening season gets underway and you
find yourself just trying to keep up.
Lorri MacKay |
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Other Articles from this Issue |
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