The Edge: Landscape Edgers and Border Products

The years aren’t good to a polished landscape that hasn’t had the pleasure of being introduced to landscape border and edging products, according to Bob Gratehouse.

“The gaps between patios and plant beds and the lawn will continue to push out, eventually affecting the look of the plant beds and patios,” explained Gratehouse, manager, Joe Galatte Landscape Co., Monee, Ill. “The soil can’t hold everything in place by itself.”

As consumers demand more low-maintenance landscapes, landscape border and edging products will continue to be incorporated into landscape designs as a means of creating permanent, crisp, clean bed lines. While edging products are sold as inconspicuous, yet enduring, bed perimeters, border products are sold as a more decorative approach to keeping one element in a landscape separate from another.

“Landscape border and edging products are a great niche market,” enthused Dave Fleming, landscape manager, Greenleaf Landscapes, Marietta, Ohio, who’s been using landscape edging and border products for 15 years. “We always incorporate edging as a low-maintenance option in our designs and our high-end residential customers really favor it.”

“By using edging and border products correctly, you are actually preventing land-scape problems from occurring,” added Gratehouse. “Our customers understand that without edgings or borders, clean bed lines need to be redone annually. All of my high-end residential clients are quality conscious and want a border product to increase the look and sharpness of a landscape. And borders or edging can help a landscape hold a certain look longer.”

REASONS FOR USE. Landscape border products have four basic uses, according to Steve Jones, president, PaveTech, Prior Lake, Minn.:

1. As separators to keep materials in place, such as bark, rock or soil
2. As structures to restrain a pavement
3. As aesthetic additions to the landscape to help outline an area
4. As a mowing strip to provide a surface for proper mowing and to help eliminate trimming

Types of edging and border products range in styles from plastic to metal to brick and concrete.

“Plastic has proven to be the most versatile, while some customers and designers like the look metal edging gives,” Jones said. “Brick has a timeless look, while concrete is something that gives a useful and accepted finished look and can be colored or patterned to the customer’s liking.”

Several years ago, Fleming said installing border and edging products was a challenge because it had to be done by hand and with a spade. Today, however, there are motorized machines, such as bed edgers that help Abundant Landscape Franchisingtrench out the ground and install border products.

Overlapping Plastic Edging

Plastic edging products can last longer and make a landscape low maintenance only when installed correctly. The toughest part of the installation process, according to Larry Olson, president, Oly-Ola Sales, Villa Park, Ill., is overlapping the pieces of polyethylene edging. The correct way to overlap: 1. Cut off a 3- to 4-inch section of the round bead at the top of one of the edging pieces to be connected. 2. Use a connecting plug that comes with the edging to join the two sections. Overlap the bottom portions of the edging. 3. Drive a steel anchoring stake through both sections at a 45-degree angle toward the turf or outside portion of the bed. –Nicole Wisniewski

To sell these products, most landscape contractors carry samples of the different types with them so that a customer can understand their purpose a little better, Fleming said.

PLASTIC EDGING. Plastic edging products typically come in 20-foot strips of polyethylene or vinyl, pointed out Larry Olson, president, Oly-Ola Sales, Villa Park, Ill., and the main purpose of plastic edging is to inconspicuously lower maintenance in the landscape and create clean lines.

Plastic edging tends to receive a bad reputation in the industry, according to Olson, because of the cheaper grade materials sold in chain stores and used by some landscape contractors. When shopping for top grade plastic edging, landscape contractors should make sure the products are made with carbon black concentrate and chemicals to protect it from the ultraviolet rays of the sun, Olson advised. Without protection from ultraviolet rays, Jones said the life of plastic edging, if exposed to the sun, could be limited.

“In cheap versions of plastic edging, black die is mistaken for carbon black concentrate,” he said. “Landscape contractors should also buy their edging in flat bundles. At chain stores, edging is sold in rolls. They could be sitting there on the shelves rolled up for six months to one year to the point where you can’t unroll them into straight lines let alone work with them in a landscape environment.”

“The cost and value of these products can usually be determined by the actual type of plastic – for example, PVC or polyethylene – the weight of the material and, to a lesser extent, the complexity of the molding. Contractors get what they pay for, ” added Jones.

Also, Olson warned that landscape contractors should make sure they are installing their plastic edging with non-bending steel stakes to keep it in place.

“Plastic products have improved over the years,” Olson enthused. “Better grade products also have v-lips or various shapes cut into the bottom to help hold them down in the ground.”

Plastic edging with steel stakes costs between 50 to 75 cents per foot, depending on the material, style and not including shipping costs, Olson said.

The biggest advantage of plastic edging is safety, according to Olson.

“Plastic tubing is less likely to injure children or pets playing outside,” he said.

As for wear and tear, plastic edging tends to be reliable and long lasting in the landscape, Fleming noted. Olson said the average life of plastic edging, depending on the traffic in the area, is about 15 years.

“I have yet to see plastic edging that I’ve installed deteriorate in a landscape,” Fleming said. “Sure, a mower or weed eater can cut the edge off of it or a piece out of it, but those pieces can be replaced without tearing up the entire edging. However, under normal weather exposure, I’ve had excellent results.”

One disadvantage of plastic edging, Olson said, is that it cannot be installed along hot asphalt poured at 300 to 350 degrees because the plastic will melt, develop ripples or will not hold the asphalt in place. This would be a good place to use metal edging, Olson suggested. Other disadvantages to using plastic involve poor installation. If installed incorrectly (see Overlapping Plastic Edging on page 122), plastic edging can pull out of the ground over time or due to a frost heave, and then must be reinstalled, Olson said.

“There are points that need some fine tuning with installing plastic edging,” Gratehouse commented. “For example, if you pound the steel stakes straight into the ground, they will eventually pop right out, especially in the cold weather during freeze-and-thaw cycles. Proper installation has a little bit to do with trial and error when starting out and a lot to do with taking your time and not rushing the job.”

Mowing Around Borders

Although landscape edging and border products make a landscape more low maintenance, they don’t stop grass from growing. Eventually, the customer or the landscape contractor who is maintaining the lawn will have to trim the grass around the edge or border. A mower reacts differently to the various types of edging and border materials, according to manufacturers and landscape contractors. Since plastic and metal edging provide an inconspicuous, invisible look, mowing over them should be quite easy, right? It depends. Mowers and weed eaters have been known to cut a piece or two off of plastic edging, said Dave Fleming, landscape manager, Greenleaf Landscapes, Marietta, Ohio, while steel edging can tear up mower blades the same way stray rocks in the soil would. When plastic edging is damaged by mowers or weed eaters, Larry Olson, president, Oly-Ola Sales, Villa Park, Ill., said the material can be replaced in pieces without having to remove and replace the entire edging. When it comes to concrete, Robert Parrish, president, Decorative Curb, Layton, Utah, said mower wheels can be run right up over the lip of the concrete border. – Nicole Wisniewski

HEAVY METAL. Metal edging is usually sold in two different forms: steel and aluminum. Steel edging comes in different grades from 14-gauge material to ¼-inch material, while aluminum is typically sold in 1/8- or 3/16-inch thickness, according to Mike Rice, regional sales manager, The J.D. Russell DURAEDGE Co., Tucson, Ariz.

Like plastic edging, metal edging is used as a divider for rock or grass areas and is meant to be invisible. Rice said metal edging works well with brick borders because it holds the brick in place.

Steel can be color matched (powder-coated with an electromagnetic paint that doesn’t allow for erosion) in green, brown or black to match a particular landscape, Rice said.

“Steel edging can also be sold in an unfinished material that allows for oxidization and will develop a surface rust,” Rice pointed out. “Unfinished steel edging will not rust through, but it creates that rustic look that is really popular in landscapes on the West Coast.”

Steel edging comes in depths of 4 and 5 inches, but can also be custom cut to fit a particular landscape, Rice said.

Although Jones said metal edging is hard to keep in a straight line during and after installation and with heavier gauge materials following an undulating grade, Rice said preplanning is the key to steel edging installation.

“If landscape contractors can preset their curves and lines and take the measurements off of that to determine the lineal footage before ordering their material, then they can save time,” Rice advised.

Steel also works very well in the freeze-and-thaw process, Rice said.

“When pushed out of the ground from environmental changes, steel edging can be hammered right back in instead of having to be replaced,” Rice pointed out.

A MORE DECORATIVE APPROACH. Brick, unlike wood borders, which have been around for just as long but have never proven reliable due to erosion, and concrete are the two types of decorative border products on the market today.

Brick borders are mortared in place and last only a few years in the northern climates because they cannot withstand freeze and thaw, but work well in southern climates, Jones noted. They are usually combined with plastic or steel edging as extra support for holding the brick in place.

Concrete edging can be colored and textured to match the customer’s home or to look like cobblestone, slate, brick, etc. Colors usually range from terra cotta to earth tones to grays, according to Gary Hunter, owner, Borderline Stamp, Phoenix, Ariz.

Concrete borders go down about 2 inches into the ground as effective root barriers, while also working to retain mulch, bark and other elements, Hunter explained.

To put down concrete borders, a contractor can spend from $2.50 to $3.50 per foot for concrete materials and labor, according to Robert Parrish, president, Decorative Curb, Layton, Utah, which is similar to the cost of steel edging.

Concrete is put down with a little help from expansion joints to keep it in place, said Keith Tisdale, president, K&B Enterprises, dba Border Magic of Mississippi, Jackson, Miss. Tisdale recommended putting down expansion joints every 3 feet on residential properties and every 10 feet on commercial properties.

“On residential landscapes, you don’t put down as much concrete so there’s a greater chance of cracking,” Tisdale explained. “By using expansion joints, the problem is alleviated.”

Another way to prevent concrete from cracking is by putting a curing seal on it to slow the curing process down because fast drying can encourage cracking and bubbling in the concrete, Tisdale advised.

Although concrete works well in warm climate, it cannot be put down in the rain or in areas with bad water drainage, Tisdale warned. It is also subject to normal cracking and in climates subject to freeze-and-thaw cycles.

The author is Assistant Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.

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