I used bricks but they soon became dislodged and required a lot of care. I replaced them with 8' long landscape timbers. They line all my rose beds and stay where I put them. Often found for $1 each at big box home improvement centers they are relatively inexpensive compared to other edgings on the market. Even though pressure treated with a non-toxic wood preservative, they will rot over time, but I've found this to not be much of a problem.
We live in an older housing development in the country and have no curbs. To prevent the street from enroaching on my lawn and weeds from growing where they meet. I placed landscape timbers at the edge of my lawn at the street. They look good and give a finished border to my yard. Being on a corner acre lot, I've used a lot of landscape timbers.

I agree with Karl. I have two beds with landscape timbers that look great and stay put. My beds made of bricks (retaining wall bricks) I bought at Lowes and while they look good for a while, they do move. With me being in a cold, wintery area, the ice pushes them out of place after a while. But at least with the bricks you can really go with rounded corners, which is a little harder with landscape timbers.

I don't use edging. The grass or driveway comes to edge of the bed. Even with edging one still has to weed. Seeds blow in, roots travel under. So I just clip the edge of the grass. And I like the transition better; it is a softer, more natural look. Edging is hard, more formal. Different strokes...

I use the black rolls of edging from HD, it is 4 " deep and you dig a shallow trench and put it in and there are spikes to hold it down... the grass ( St Augustine) grows up to it but not past it, and on the inside I use mulch.... keeps the edge neat and no grass in the beds, and it is practically invisible... also inexpensive..... sally

I spade-cut my edges.

I don't know if you have this where you live...but it is very common where I live.(concrete edging)

http://www.curbdirectory.com/?gclid=CPnZ87zwgKICFQtSgwodYVdYCw

It is inexpensive and looks very clean and nice...this is it in my yard

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4002/4650214567_932c9ebc69.jpg

Being that it is concrete, it can be made in just about any color and they do it in the exact shape and design you want.

(The main bed is just dry stacked rocks, not edging)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:290089}}

palepinkrose, I am not a fan of the look of that edging, but I can definitely see how it would be easy to maintain. It looks like it is shaped to mow right over the edge of it and save on trimming. Is this so? Where do you live?

I spade cut my edges as well and just fill the small trench with mulch. Keeps the mulch in and I'm able to mow along the edge with no need to pull out the edger.

Yes, it does makes for very easy mowing! and It does come in other colors. If you like things neat and tidy and don't want to spend hours edging, it is the perfect thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:290090}}

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions. Palepinkrose, that is the kind of thing I would love to use. But I followed the site and it seems like someone would have to come and place it for me? I can't just buy it from a Home Depot or something?

I use timber edging for an informal look at my allotment and for customers, I often lay block paviours in a soldier course as a mowing strip. You could do the same with bricks but you must use then side on - the thinnest edge upwards - as the normal face is vulnerable to frost damage - also, you do need to bed them in a sand and cement mix as they will move otherwise. Finally, you can also use bricks in a dogtooth pattern, half bedded into the soil and half sticking up at an oblique angle (does this make sense?) Unless you have many curves, stick with timber edging and stakes every 2 metres or so - you can stain the timber, leaving as much or as little above the soil surface. An idea size is 150mmx25mm x3m but you can use narrower lengths (100mm).

The planting beds where I live are excessively mulched each year by the landscapers, so there's always a superabundance of shredded wood mulch on the planting beds and consequently I have no concerns about edging. (I live in a townhouse/condominium complex, so I can't do anything about this particular aspect of my gardening.)

Having said that, if I was on my own and needed to think about a way to keep the grass at bay I'd probably use what my mom used to use. It's not a native plant, but in my experience if it's happy it doesn't usually spread aggressively so much as it simply persists. In moist climates roses will grow just fine with it as their "living mulch" (I know well from personal experience).

My mom used to use periwinkle (aka Vinca minor) as her living mulch and in my experience more often than not it served the purpose very well. The great thing about it is that if you live in an area where you can safely grow it (& there are lots of such areas), it stays low to the ground, blooms very nicely in spring (& remontantly thereafter), suppresses weeds, but doesn't compete with your roses (or at least it doesn't in a moist climate. I don't know what happens in a dry one. The Boston & Philadelphia areas average about 40" of rain per year.)

(Click on the images at the link get better views of those pictures. The link also explains why and when the plant should not be used. I have always lived in environments already too urban or otherwise ill-suited for this plant to get out of control. I would not use this plant if I lived in an area where I could plainly see it would not remain confined.)

Lovemyshelty,

Look for someone in your area that does concrete edging.
It is MUCH cheaper than buying bricks or blocks or anything else and much quicker easier to lay!

They come and lay it out exactly the way you want.

They just cut away the grass where you want the concrete to lay and then it comes out of a machine wet.

Then you just let it dry and it is solid and doesn't fall apart or move like blocks do and it keeps all of your mulch in the bed where you want it.

Here is a video that shows how its done...

Here is a link that might be useful: concrete edging

It is also called landscape curbing or concrete curbing

I use 8' x 4" x 4" landscape lumber. I notch the ends to overlap with the next 8' stretch then I drill a 1/2" hole through the overlapping notches and drive a 5/8" x 2' rebar through the hole & into the ground to hold the lumber in place. I live in zone 5 and the lumber is 10 years old and showing no signs of rot or shift.

palepinkrose, thanks for the info, that does look great. I have bermuda grass (GRRRR) and that edging looks like it would help keep it out of the beds and keep the mulch in. We were thinking of bricks, but if this is cheaper and can be any color/shape, it would be perfect.

The concrete curb looks a bit formal. It also looks very permanent. If you enjoy changing the size and shape of your beds, you're out of luck.

I'm out of bricks, so I have to come up with a new method that is inexpensive. Anyone have pictures of spade-cutting technique? Does it work well with a raised bed?

Harryshoe, a video for you: (of course this is not the ONLY way to do it, it can be modified to fit people and beds. Spray paint works well for marking curves and corners.)

Here is a link that might be useful: How to edge beds using a spade-cut