How to Construct a Stone Flower Bed

Stone edging will help to hold mulch in a flower bed.

Edging a flower bed helps to keep mulch or gravel out of a lawn. If the edging is well constructed, it will also keep out weeds, grass and other invasive plants. One medium you can use for edging is stone. It can take the form of cut pavers or stacked boulders. Building a flower bed from stone can be labor intensive.

Things You'll Need

• Mallet
• Stakes
• String
• Rope
• Loppers
• Hand saw
• Chain saw
• 4 mil greenhouse plastic
• Landscaping stakes
• Tiller
• Compost
• Peat moss
• Shovel
• Carpenter's level
• Plywood
• Metal edging
• Tin snips
• Pry bar
• Stones of assorted size

Instructions

1. Mark the boundaries of a flower bed with straight edges by hammering stakes into the corner and stretching string in between them. Lay out the borders of a curved flower bed by placing a rope on the ground around the edges of the flower bed.

2. Remove woody plants in the flower bed using branch loppers, a hand saw or a chain saw depending on the size of the woody plant. Dig up the roots of the plant using a shovel. Cover the new flower bed with 4 mil greenhouse plastic. Anchor the plastic in place with landscaping stakes. Wait two months to remove the plastic. Sunlight will kill all vegetation beneath the plastic.

3. Break up the soil inside the bed with a tiller. Set aside all rocks that you find inside the bed to use in the border of the bed. Spread compost and peat moss over the soil at a rate of 3 cubic yards per 1,000 square feet. The compost and peat moss will improve soil texture and replace beneficial bacteria that were lost when you used the plastic on the soil. Mix the soil with the compost using the tiller.

4. Dig a trench around the edges of the flower bed. The trench should be at least 6 inches deep to place your edging below the frost line of your soil and prevent frost heave from shifting the edging. Buckle 20-foot sections of metal edging together and insert stakes into the holes in the sides of the edging. Press the edging against the wall of the trench and hammer the stakes into place. The metal edging will create a second barrier behind the stones to prevent weeds and grass from sending runners into the flower bed.

5. Shift and roll stones into the trench using a pry bar and a smaller stone as a fulcrum. The stones should fit within the trench with one side pressed up against the metal edging. Sift dirt into the cracks between the stones to fill in the gaps in the stonework. You will be able to plant rock garden flowers in the dirt in these cracks.

References

• Texas A&M University Extension: Building a Raised Bed Garden
• University of Missouri Extension: Building a Raised Bed Garden
• Colorado State University Extension: Rock Garden Plants

Resources

• Univeristy of Wyoming Extension: Landscape Edging a Great Addition to Yards