Friday 23 December 2011

Garden Edging Techniques - Creating Beautiful Landscape Designs With Edging

Garden edging is a great way to make your landscape designs pop. You can achieve many clean and decorative looks with various edging techniques. Garden edging will open up a world of landscape design opportunities in your yard because you can choose from a multitude of designs, edging materials, and edging techniques.

If you are not familiar with edging, it is a term used to describe a landscaping technique used to create "edges" around various landscape elements. You can place an edge around trees, shrubs, flowers, and hardscape elements like light posts and mailboxes. Creating an edge around elements in a landscape gives them a clean look and sets them apart from other elements in the yard.

Depending on the style you want to achieve with this technique you might want to choose certain materials over others. For example, cement can give a more modern look and brick can be used to create a more traditional look. Stone and brick are the easiest materials for homeowners to work with on their own. To begin you can try any one of these simple but beautiful techniques that use stone and brick.

Boulder Technique -- This is a very simple landscaping technique to start with. All you need are large sized rocks. Anywhere from 8 inches to a foot in height. Then you place them around your selected garden bed. You can use rocks that slightly vary in shape and color. This technique gives gardens an organic look.

Flagstone Technique -- Flagstone is a popular stone to use in landscapes. It has a distinctive look that most people recognize--a flat, wide surface with uneven edges. Because it is so flat it should be placed in small stacks to give it height. To create a simple edging with flagstone, take small stacks of the stone and place them side-by-side around a garden bed.

Diagonal Brick -- This landscaping idea gives a beautiful old-world look to landscapes. You can create the diagonal brick look by building a small trench around a select garden bed (minding plant roots, of course). Then, set your bricks in the trench so that they are laying on top of each other at a diagonal angle. Fill the trench back up so that most of each brick is covered. When you are done it should look like there are little pyramids of brick sticking out of the ground in a row.

You can create garden edging on your own or you can consult with a residential landscape designer who can create edging designs for you. However, creating your own beautiful edging only requires that you have an eye for detail, a steady hand, and a few materials. You can literally edge with anything that inspires you (sea shells, old bottles, etc.), but some traditional garden edging materials include wood, metal, brick, stone, cement, plastic, and aluminum. You can find pre-made edging materials at your local home improvement store that can easily be put together. You can also buy brick or any variety of stone to create you edging. This is most common. Professional landscape designers typically create cement edges but you can also buy pre-cast cement or faux cement edges that are easy to put together.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Landscape Improvements - Flower Bed Edging Ideas

If your landscape needs a little sprucing up, but you're not ready for a complete redo, some minor improvements to your beds' edging can make a dramatic difference. While looking attractive, edging around your flower bed is also very practical. Edging keeps your lawn and flower garden separate, reducing the problem of grass invading into your flower bed.

There are several types of flower bed edging you should consider. Some of the options are listed below.

Dug or Drop-Down Edge

This is a somewhat difficult method that is more work to maintain. However, a trench edge or lowered flower bed is a naturally appealing design. If you already have a flower bed set up, try digging a several inch wide trench with a hand trowel around the current area. Patience is the key to success with this edge. When your done, the trench can be left empty or filled with pebbles or crushed shells.

Plastic Edge

Plastic borders are sold by the roll, and are often installed by driving the strips into the ground with small stakes. This is a useful tool if you want to separate your plants from crossing between the bed and the lawn, but don't want a large or noticeable border.

Natural Stone Edge

With the growing popularity of natural landscaping features, you can easily purchase very elegant stone to create a border with, including granite and flagstone. This asymmetrical and uneven border will complement both highly organized garden spaces, as well as more "wild" type flower beds. For the do-it-yourselfers, try to incorporate rocks from your own yard instead of purchasing natural edging.

When working with natural stone borders, you have a lot of freedom with the shape of the outline. In this case, simple is usually best. Complicated or winding borders are distracting and displeasing to the eye, so aim for wide sweeping lines.

Wood Edge

Attractive wood edging is simple to do, and the appropriate lumber can usually be purchased at your local hardware store. Make sure that if you choose a wood that is pressure treated it has been rated to be safe for soil contact. For a touch of classic suburban fashion, try isolating one small flower bed with white picket fence. Overusing this stark white border takes attention away from the landscape, but just a touch for accent is eye-catching and appealing.

Brick and Cast Stone Edge

These styles have decreased in popularity over the years for residential homes. Most people prefer more natural looking alternatives, but there are some pre-cast and brick borders available that are very attractive, durable and inexpensive.

Plant edging

The last type of edging that I will mention is often overlooked, and that is plant edging. Plant edging is easy to do and always a cause for positive compliments. Work with low growing flowers in simple, uniform shades of colour for thinner borders, or small shrubberies for larger borders.

Monday 5 December 2011

Use Decorative Garden Edging to Set Your Garden Apart From the Landscape

There are many different types of gardens that people choose to grow. Some people choose to grow an herb garden, others choose to grow a vegetable garden, while still others choose to raise a garden full of beautiful flowers. Any of these types of arrangements can be made quite attractive with the addition of some decorative garden edging. This type of edging can be found in all types of materials and styles to make your particular garden an aesthetically pleasing spot.

For those who are interested in a rustic or natural look, there are all types of wood edging that can be used. This type of edging can be bought ready made or can be handmade. It can look like a small wooden fence with finials or it can be fashioned out of different heights of wooden logs. Another natural look is stone garden edging. This type of decorative garden edging can be found easily. Or, if the owner of the garden would like to give this type of edging their own creative touch, he or she can collect all sorts of stones from nature and place them accordingly.

Some garden owners will prefer decorative garden edging that is made out of metal. There are all different types of metals that can be used for this type of application. There are simple and quite fancy options. It all depends on what the particular person would like to choose. Metal lawn edging can also be created by a person with an artistic touch.

Brick edging is also a popular choice among the owners of gardens. If the owner has a brick home, then this can be a nice touch to tie in the garden with the home. Yet, brick can be used regardless of what the home is constructed of. All in all, it really comes down to what the owner of the garden would like to do to set his or her garden apart from the rest of the landscape. With all of the different choices of materials and styles of decorative garden edging that are available, all it should take is a little thought and the edging project can be made one that will be admired.