How To Edge Flower Beds Like A Pro

Quincy Bulin
·3 min read

It’s time to level up your garden. Here's how to successfully edge your flower beds in four easy steps.

<p>Getty Images</p>

Getty Images

Edged flower beds aren’t necessary (though the best gardens have them), but there are definitely practical and aesthetic benefits. “It can emphasize the space and cleanly separate it from other parts of your garden,” explains Rebecca Sears, CMO & Resident Green Thumb at Ferry-Morse. “It can also help with preventing materials such as soil or mulch from being displaced into other parts of your garden or lawn.” Luckily, it’s also pretty simple too. Here's how you can successfully edge your flower beds in four easy steps.





Rebecca Sears is the CMO & Resident Green Thumb at seed company Ferry-Morse.




What You’ll Need:

  • Lawn edger

  • Garden trowel

  • Gardening shears

  • Foam knee pads (optional)

  • Garden gloves (optional)

Step 1: Create a Plan

Instead of digging wherever your whim takes you, we recommend you take the time to make a plan. “You’ll want to begin by marking the placement and border of your flower bed,” Sears recommends. This doesn’t have to be elaborate—a string or hose will get the job done.

Step 2: Make the Cut

Now it’s time to pull out your edger, which is a long-handled, half-moon shaped tool, or a traditional flat-edged shovel. According to Sears, the neatest and most effective way to create your edge is to cut the outside and inside edges of the marked border.

Step 3: Remove It

After that’s all done, you can remove the sod. “You’re left with a nice, clean edge that should be maintained regularly with trimming and weeding,” says Sears. (Yes, it’s really that easy.)

Step 4: Design a Boarder

There are a lot of ways to elevate your flower bed edges, if you so choose. For depth and texture, you can add bricks or stones to the border. “If you’re looking for a more subtle way to up your edging game, you can add strips of steel or aluminum around the edges for a cleaner and more uniform look,” Sears suggests. Beyond aesthetic preference, you should also consider the time it takes to build and maintain your new edges.

Consider Boarder Plants

For a more simplistic approach, consider lining your beds with boarder flowers that are fit for the edge. You want a variety that’s lower to the ground and grows relatively neatly to create that definable border. While there are plenty of options out there, these are a few of our favorites:

  • Coral Bells, which thrive in Zones 4-9, produce green, yellow, and burgundy foliage with flower spikes in the summer.

  • Begonia is another option, often growing to be less than a foot tall, that is considered an annual in Zones 2-9 and a perennial in Zones 9-10.

  • Liriope thrives in Zones 4-10 and has a grass-like foliage accompanied by small purple flowers in the summer.

  • Hellebore is hardy in Zones 4-9 and provides late winter or early spring flowers. It grows in colors from cream to pink to almost black.

  • Sedum, grown in Zones 3-10, which comes in a range of clumping, upright varieties that pollinators love.

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