How to Keep Bermuda Grass Out of Flower Beds

Edging will prevent grass from creeping into your flower bed.

When flower beds border an expanse of lawn, many gardeners are faced with the issue of how to keep the grass out of their flower beds. Aggressive grasses, such as Bermuda grass, spread on runners above the ground called stolons and below the ground called rhizomes. Most gardeners keep grass from spreading into flower beds by putting a barrier around the flower bed. The most common barriers are made of edging.

Things You'll Need

• Garden hose
• Spray paint
• Garden spade
• Scoop shovel
• Branch loppers
• Plastic or metal garden edging
• Metal stakes
• Hammer

Instructions

1. Outline your flower bed with a garden hose to determine the exact border. If you are building a flower bed from scratch, you can change the shape by adjusting the outline formed by the garden hose.

2. Mark the design formed by the garden hose using spray paint.

3. Cut a trench around the border of the flower bed using a garden spade. The trench should extend vertically into the soil approximately 6 inches. This is deep enough to prevent Bermuda grass runners from creeping beneath the edging.

4. Remove the soil sloping from the flower bed to the trench wall with a scoop shovel. Cut all roots you encounter with a pair of branch loppers. The trench should be uniformly 6 inches deep.

5. Align metal or plastic edging against the wall of the trench. Metal and plastic edging are sold in sections that are typically 20 feet long. If your border is longer than that, connect the sections and cut them to size. Plastic edging connectors look like tubes that insert into the top of the plastic edging. Metal edging slides together. Cut plastic edging with a utility knife and metal edging with tin snips or a hack saw.

6. Press the edging in place so that no more than 1/3 inch is above the soil line.

7. Position stakes around the edging. Use no fewer than four stakes per 20-foot section. Hammer stakes for metal edging vertically into the ground. Hammer stakes for plastic edging parallel to the soil line at the bottom of the edging just above the V-shaped curl. Force soil into the cracks between the edging and the trench wall and under the edging bottom against the wall.

8. Pull the soil down to fill in the trench behind the edging.

9. Insert a spade into the soil in front of the edging to cut any Bermuda grass roots that are attempting to creep under the edging.

10. Turn your lawn mower away from your flower bed when you mow to avoid blowing seed heads into your flower bed. This will help prevent new grass from becoming established in your flower bed.

References

• Renegade Gardener: How to Install Landscape Edging
• Texas A&M University Extension: Bermudagrass
• Texas A&M University Extension: Planning a Raised Bed Garden