By
eHow Home & Garden Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
Step1
Draw a line that separates your lawn from the adjoining bed. Use garden spray paint to create a gentle curve, straight lines or any combination that pleases your eye.
Step2
Choose a square-head spade to cut the edge and a hoe to smooth out the edge. Make sure your tools are sharp.
Step3
Stand on the lawn where it meets the bed. Get in close so that the lawn side of the trench will be no more than three inches from the bed edge.
Step4
Hold your spade at about 45 degrees, with its sharpened head on the edge line. Put your foot on the head and guide it at a 45-degree angle 3 inches into the soil.
Step5
Lift out the grass and soil and toss it into your wheelbarrow. Take a step to one side and make another cut and toss to match the first. Continue down the line you've drawn until the entire edge is dug out. Set aside any healthy pieces of turf to patch bare spots elsewhere and compost the rest of the debris.
Step6
Use your hoe to smooth both sides of the trench. It should be 3 inches deep, sloping up to 3 inches wide at the top. Let the lawn grow right up to one side, with the garden bed meeting the other side.
Step7
Maintain the neat edge with regular scrapes of your hoe to cut out lawn or plants that try to cross the trench. Keep the edge as dry as possible to suppress weeds.
Comments
sassy270380 said
on 11/15/2007 do you remove the black edging material after you make the drench between your flower garden and the lawn?
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 Use a garden fork to perforate the lawn-side line of the trench, then connect the dots with your spade!
Anonymous said
on 11/22/2005 I learned this after my parents seperated and I had to do the outside work.
Depending on what kind of border your using (in my case it is the regular black stuff), you take a sharp square cut shovel and stick the blade in half way. Repeat this about an inch in front of the cut you made and take out the remaining dirt. Then, slide the trench into the crater you made and fill out the remaining space to steady the trench. It's a lot of work, especially in summer, but it pays off with a nice, clean-cut garden to look at every day.