I have a rock edge to my herb bed - flat rocks, not round - but still leaves the issue of what to do about the grass creeping into the rocks as well as access to let the mower get close enough to prevent needing to trim the grass at the rock edge after mowing. My solution is to keep a 1.5-2" clear dirt strip at the edge of the rocks. First thing in spring I clear any grass that grew in late in the year and loosen the soil. During the growing season, any time I pass by, I watch for encroachment and rip back anything I notice. In the loose soil, it's pretty easy. Round rocks might need a wider bare strip because their uneven faces might prevent a mower getting very close.

If I had a long stretch I wanted to rock edge (the herb bed is only 20' or so), I'd probably put a brick or flat stone mow strip in front and use something like the Curve-Rite metal edging between the bricks and the grass.

If you are going to have a 2" clear dirt strip between the lawn and the rocks,why have the rocks? Do they look that good designwise? What is their purpose?

botann - the herb bed is on a very steep bank beside the driveway, which is very close to the neighbours' driveway. While the bed is densely planted, which prevents a lot of erosion/run-off, the 6-8" tall rock wall at the bottom also helps. I also like the look of the rocks with the herbs, although the wall does need to be, at some point, rebuilt as it was a hasty solution that I've not got around to refining due to other priorities in the garden.

Well, that is the kind of idea--NOT actually having grass right up to the vertical face, but having something else. The something else's can be the occasional spreading plant; can be a uniform edging plant--I have had some situations in which the edging plant alone would not hold enough soil back for the amount I wanted to raise the bed, but the same plant in front of the rock "wall" made a less hospitable environment. With the large liriopes, for example, they arch over and you can either get grass inhibition by the relative shade, and manage the occasional succesful straggler, or you can (perish the thought) do a bit of chemical edging in which the little bare dead strip is not visible under their foliage. Generally you need evergreen foliage for this kind of look. Or, you can use rounded rock or stacked rock plus flat rocks outside them. This is a very interesting look that can double as a path next to the raised bed. With that, you still have some grass "defense" issues, though, depending on how you set the flatter stones.
Or, you can do a hand-dug edge as suggested--kind of depends on what's the angle of view of your garden bed and how decorative, or not, it can be.

Again, I have some areas in which I need the rock to hold soil, due to topography of certain parts of the yard; otherwise would do a simpler edge and not rock + other edge.

In some areas, I have used temporary rock edging to allow some lasagne bed creation and to get an edging plant grown up to size--then after soil is much improved, and edging plant is thick and tall enough to prevent compost and mulch from leaking out, I can remove the rock behind it.

I make an edge outboard of the stones, packed with mulch and topped with pine needles. It is slightly deeper than the turf surface, so the mower wheel can ride in it and I get a nice edge on the turf when I mow.

Ignore the timestamp on these pics; I have a crappy camera with a mind of its own.
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Thanks for the comments and the well-kept example. That's the standard I'm afraid of failing to reach! But I see the value of the dirt strip. Especially in the middle of a lawn where a walkway of some sort would look odd... though in my case I may be able to design one in.

Well put, Frankie, as a grass defense problem, and as such one of a larger group of issues. I also appreciate the reminder that grass can be defeated by shade - that may turn out to be my salvation.

KarinL

Try the gardening with stone forum.

I'm glad to have found this thread. I'm considering a similar set-up. Except sort of backwards. Our house sits a good bit back from the street which affords us a fairly large front yard. To try and minimize the mowing, I took an idea from a landscaping book and designed the grass as the island, rather than the beds. It is a large kidney shape in front of the house with beds all around it. I have been considering the rock edge, because one of the beds, by the street was a culvert...and is now a culvert concealed by a rock garden. I had thought to do rock all the way around the grass for that reason, but now not sure. I'm not as concerned about the grass growing through, as I am about the mower being able to get up next to it.

Woodyoak, I think you missed the point. If a rock wall is called for, then a rock wall is appropriate. We are talking about round stones encircling a flower bed.
If it's a raised bed that is hardly higher than the lawn why not just dig out the edge of the bed and put the topsoil in the middle of the bed and forget the round stones. Fill in the 'ditch' with mulch and pack it down. A 'necklace' of stones around a bed looks as weird to me as ring of them around a backyard pond. Artificial. Good thing Landscape Design leaves a lot of room for different ideas and definitions as to what looks good. As they say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

I have one place where the path is higher than the beds on each side. I put about 6 inches of mulch down on the path each year. The shrubs have grown up to the point where you can hardly tell the path is higher. It sure drains well though..... and beats walking in a wet ditch or soggy lawn.

botann - Pardon me, but I (and gardenscout too) was addressing karinl's issue of practical ways of dealing with the maintenance aspects of an interface between a rock wall and grass, not Madtripper's design comments on another thread.

I guess I did ask my question without regard for why the stones were there or whether it was right that they should be, and perhaps on the LD forum it is right that that question would be raised. I didn't think about going to another forum because the question came from another thread here.

I used the example of a raised bed in the middle of a lawn as an example of why this question might be of broad general interest, but as it happens that isn't what I'm doing. I am trying to create some topography, having a tiresomely flat yard, but at the foundation, not in the middle of the yard. Fortunately our porch is of masonry block and dirt can be piled against it. I am having to slope down to avoid putting dirt against either side of the wooden stairs, which abut the centre of the porch, so my raised bed is bound to be an imperfect design. But I want rocks, and I want relief from flatness, and I want a stepped rock garden, whether it constitutes good design in my setting or not!

I was driving around the suburbs today noting the use of stone in yards both obviously professionally installed and maintained, and DIY. In one case gravel was the surface of choice outside the fairly large stones. In another case, someone had lovingly and optimistically ringed all the beds with quite small rocks, and was clearly losing the battle to keep the grass from growing between them. In yet another case, someone had installed - but not quite deep enough - plastic edging with the rolled top around another small rock edging, showing to just what dreadful extremes one can be driven by the frustration of grass invading rocks, or being unable to mow.

It is perhaps surprising in these cases that the removal of the rocks is apparently not contemplated. I think it's a question worth asking in some cases, for reasons of either design OR maintenance.

KarinL