very cryptic title.. but good for you ...

now if it were only in the other post you would be all set ... link below to that post ...

i have about a half acre [of the 5] .. former horse pasture.. which i simply do not mow.. but for very late fall ... i call it.. meadow or prairie ... in honor of the lion king.. my daughter calls it the savannah ...

having spent the first 40 years in suburbia.. i had no clue.. that native weed patches.. oops.. i mean meadow.. could be a care free addition to the garden ...

that backdrop is really cool .. for your formal edged beds.. relish it ..

there.. now we are on topic.. lol

ken

ps: whats the little yellow bush hiding.. the well cap ????

Here is a link that might be useful: link

ok ken more edging for you, can you dig it? a little work but i like the look, easier to transition with a slope of course and yes that wellcap should be hidden soon. spring yet?
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Hey Mann, Your place looks great!

Agreed, nice work with the edging! How frequently does it require "refreshing"? Or is it too new to know yet?

Nice job with the beds, too - did you install it all yourself?

What is the deciduous bush in the front of the second photo in your second post - it looks like some sort of willow - do you know more specifically what it is?

Alex

tx guys...fun to share. edging has always been an issue for me until i saw landscaping crew doing it like this at my workplace. never liked the heaving or look of plastic. i do see some impressive paver edging on many pics here... 'refreshing' once or twice a season works well... don't own a weedwacker, tossed it on day one when my line tangled...i go right to the edge (careful now) with handheld mower and that's it. ya, i did the beds... but they've been expanding... decent landscaping fabric under the mulch a must in these parts.

that bush is just a purple lilac from home depot, alex... it won't be staying there though, they get Big. there's a blue satin 'rose of sharon' behind it now...work in progress ;)

Very nice job on your gardens and landscape. That is exactly how I do my edging and it lasts about 5 years or more before I have to do any refreshing of the edge. Mind you I live in the country and do not have that lush, plush, green lawn that gets watered a couple times a week. Oh and I run my lawnmower wheel down in the deep part of the soil edge which makes the blade cut that part of the lawn MUCH closer to the ground than the rest of the lawn which I also believe takes the energy and pushes it into growth rather than spreading like crazy by roots.

Everything looks so nice and tidy in your yard. I love it.

thank you, this is a nice place to learn and share. if my mower wheel falls in the edge, the blade bottoms out and digs a scar.....hmm i guess i could raise it! so how are things lookin' in nd? found this pic from maybe 4 years back.

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I agree you have a real nice landscape. I really like it.

Dax

Your garden design is very nice. Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your photos.

I have a few observations or concerns I would like to pass on to you.

The Picea pungens next to the house is suffering from being planted to close to the house resulting with unbalanced side growth. It appears you have plenty of room for relocation.

Your edging is done the right way. Although, I would raise the mulch level a few inches to diminish the drop off between soil and mulch.

The landscape fabric under the mulch in time will develop its own growing medium for weeds and any other undesirables.

When that happens there is actually a dead zone under the fabric, soil is hard as a brick, that restricts moisture, oxygen and minerals from reaching the roots. Of course the choice is yours but if left to me I would be on a mission to remove all fabric in order to insure good healthy plants.

What is your growing zone?

Again, thanks for posting. The rest of the yard...are there anymore photos?

Dave

hey magic ...

we ought to start a new.. searchable-titled post about edging ...

there are a few tricks to do it...

first is a straight shovel... see link ...

then to hone it surgical sharp .. you would not believe how much easier sharpness makes the job.. go figure on that ... it took me something like 20 years in the garden.. to learn to sharpen my shovels.. what a nimrod.. lol ...

i seem to recall .... that there is one major cut per year.. with some cleanup rarely ..

the trick is that grass roots.. only go about 3 inches down.. so the cut edge is about 4 inches ... and that is what stops the grass from invading the bed ... if you dont go back each spring.. the grass will root deeper and come into the bed ...

most push mowers ... the blade overhangs the wheels by 3 to 6 inches.. so.. its not all that hard to mow the edge.. presuming sobriety .. lol ... you do need 100% concentration, especially on curves and circles ...

its been a decade... did i miss anything ...???

i saw some utubes on lawn edging.. but i wanted to show you the shovel pic ...

regardless.. the bottom line.. when dealing with the most invasive weed on earth.. grass ... is that no matter what you use.. you will never be done.. trying to stop its advance ...

ken

ps: oh.. i HATE .. with a passion.. PLASTIC in the garden.. so that stuff is not an option to a true gardener IMHO... but i found.. even with that .... the grass grows under it.. and you find yourself having to edge it also ...

brick or pavers is a nice option... if there is a budget ... same with grass eventually going under it though .. but in magics garden.. with the prairie surrounding .. the formality of the brick edge would not fit ... as compared to the formal beds like dave's .... to each his/her own ... but think about the totality of the 'look' .. before you go do it.. simply because someone else does it ..

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:643043}}

first off, tx all for comments and photos of your amazing gardens...

dave, your keen observation regarding that columnar spruce and its slightly weaker growth on the shaded house (southern) side, i put that in mainly as a windscreen to slow 30+ mph northern winds that rip across the porch in the winter making entry and exit to the house an unwelcome adventure. i have wooden chairs tied to the rail year round right there. the imbalance is not really as bad as it looks there and i've recently trimmed slightly on the sunnier side to balance....but that tree is stayin!

the landscape fabric was added after the fact as another necessity...(it's the 30 year commercial grade stuff)... abutting the 'praire' required something much stronger than mulch to keep nature out of that bed. the utter strengh and determination of weeds and grasses to find the sun and invade that bed still blows me away.

yeah, you're right about building up the border edge with more soil and dirt....gotta add dirt though cause a good rain turns that edge into a stream that will take the mulch with it. i'll share more pics and tell some interesting water control stories another day... a good topic!

gotta work a bit... keep up with the comments and pics all ;)

Magic Man thaks for posting the pics! Things are looking pretty nice for you. Any plans to make additional beds to capture the individual plants? Agree, more pics!

Have you experienced burning where the grass ends at the edge? I've tried that method before and by mid summer I have brown dormant grass outlining my edge. Ends up looking terrible here in SE WI.

ha, oh yeah...it'll be evolving this year. haven't had that burning you mention, but that area has more moisture than you'd expect....from up the hill(underground).

excellent shovel ken ;)

Nice landscape, majic. I have to agree Dave about the landscape fabric. Any short term gain is far outweighed by the long term pain. 30 year commercial grade means little as weeds will grow through it long before then and will be harder to pull because of the fabric. Add to that the nutrient and water block that will occur soon enough and you will have the dead zone Dave mentioned.

tj

You've done a beautiful job landscaping your yard. Love all the plants you've put in. Beautiful job keeping it up also.
Cher

MM, I would NOT add anymore soil to your edges. It eventually fills in and the only way to keep the grass roots from encroaching into your gardens beds is to have that deep edge with the soil piled up on your garden as you have it. I tried looking for a photo of a close up of my edge but don't seem to have one. I do have one that shows a distant view but you can not see the depth of the edge. Mine is about 4 or 5 inch deep. I have a riding lawn mower that when driving with the wheel in the deep part of the edged area leaves about an inch of grass when I pull the mower deck up as high as it will go while mowing the outline of my garden.

If you fill in that edge, you will get grass to encroach into your gardens. I have crab grass that will move in quickly if I did not keep my gardens edged in the fashion you show.

Here is a photo of my edging...it does not show it as clearly as your photos do but it is a deep edge. I LOVE it.

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lady is a birdlover too...nice. i think we were referring to some fill to the 'hump' on the mulch side. i agree about the clean deep dirtside edge for grassroot barrier ;)