Overgrown Landscape..Importance of Edging!

Back in January, we worked really hard redoing the front yard landscape. We dug up plants, added new plants, new soil, and mulched. We worked our butts off, and thought our work would be done for awhile.

Here are some pictures we took after we initially cleaned everything up, and "hoped" it would stay looking forever. Realistically, not the case, and you'll soon see why.

These pics were taken January 31, 2012. Notice how everything looks nice and clean. I found out the hard way that it doesn't stay looking like this for very long.

We ended up removing the Japanese Maple and transplanted it to a shadier spot in the backyard. It
was burning up in the front, and needed shade desperately.

We forgot ONE HUGE detail to help maintain the beds, and keep them looking nice and neat.... FREAKIN EDGING!!! My Lord. It's been driving me crazy these past several months. Why, because it turned into an overgrown, ugly, grass bed. Our grass started creeping into the mulch beds, and we just didn't think about this when we initially started. So do yourself a favor, and BUY edging, because you'll need it.

This is why you'll need it.

{What happened to my beautiful stones?? Gone, hiding under the mess}

{UGGGGG, at least the plants are still alive..good thing}

{The only thing I love are these purple shamrock perennials that popped up}

{Not loving the how the grass is overtaking the whole bed}

{Disaster}

{Watch out!! St Augustine grass will hog the whole show if you let it}

So, it ended up turning into too big of a job for myself and my hubs to want to handle. Just wasn't going to happen. So we had our main man Saul come over, and give us a hand. 3 hours later, it looked brand new again.

{Improvement}

{Once the grass grows up to the edging, will look better}

{Back to clean and neat}

{No more creeping grass}

Doing the plastic black edging from Home Depot wouldn't have been my first choice, but your options out there are limited. I wasn't crazy about the metal edging either, and ultimately would have preferred to do rock or stone of some kind. This was a quick fix, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Hopefully this helps keep the beds looking clean and purty, and will require little help from me.


I'd love to hear how you keep your grass from creeping into your beds. What type of edging do you have? This is a temporary fix that might turn into a permanent fix depending upon how well it does. We shall see. I'd love to hear your ideas and take on what's worked for you.