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Northwestern Gardening

How to you separate lawn from garden?

16 years ago

I'd like to get rid of the lawn completely but DH won't let me. He used ugly plastic edging and over the years it has sunk down and the grass has grown over it, costing me planting space and annoying time digging it out.

If I have to have a lawn, I'd like a better edge. One that looks natural too. I'd like to use broken concrete and have the beds up higher than the lawn but would that be a PITA? He has a string trimmer though......I have broken concrete in the back yard and it is no problem but the lawn is always half dead there do to shade and neighbor's mature firs sucking all the moisture.

I hope to steal some more space too ;)

Comments (6)

pianojuggler
16 years ago
At the moment, I just have a trench about six inches deep and six inches across with vertical walls. I've thought about laying some cedar boards into it (no pressure-treated lumber around a garden of edibles), but with the straight walls, I can keep the grass at bay with a string trimmer.

And as the garden gets bigger and bigger, I just fill in the trench and dig a new one a few feet farther out.
novita
16 years ago
LOL - my DH also loves his lawn! I enlarge flower beds inch by inch but to tell the truth, I can't handle any more weeding, am trying to get the garden so it's a bit less work, so the lawns will stay. I think the edging with broken concrete would look nice, a bit lik e brick edging. If you dig a little trench around it the grass can't creep into the bed.
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I would like to see shrubs transitioning from clearing to forest - laurel, andromeda, rhododendron, climbing hydrangea on the tree trunks are the first thoughts that come to mind. Create depth by layering and staggering heights and leaving openings, rather than a flat wall. Low shrubs and groundcover can unite the edge of the wooded area and the edge of the lawn, along with your rocks, again not in a line but arranged as naturally as you can. I also would think again about the footbridge and split rail fence -- they seem like mixed metaphors. Consider painting your fence a darker color if you want to downplay the contrast between the two areas. If you can screen the view of the neighboring house, you will increase the sense of a private sanctuary in the forest. Just a warning: beware of planting more more trees. It is easy to eliminate all of your light and be left with few options for those lower stories that are key to fill. I envy you the ability to move rocks like furniture. Have fun!
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I'm one who found the trench edge too much maintenance. To keep it looking nice and crisp, it needed work three times each season or soil washing down from the beds started to fill the trench and blur the edges. My case is a bit unusual since I'm disabled and use a walker for mobility. The trench was also becoming a hazard - if I walked too close to the edge and any of the the walker wheels dropped into the trench, I was apt to fall. The brick edging was a great relief for both maintenace and safety. We waited until we thought the beds were likely to stay pretty much stable in size and shape before we did the brick edge. We changed one the next year, which was a bit of a pain. The other thing I do - mainly in the backyard - is put a mulch path between the bed and the lawn so the grass is nowhere near the bed. The grass seems less inclined to invade the path and easier to remove - or mulch over - if it does.
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If you can come up with an old piece of chain link fence and a couple logs you can make a drag to pull behind the mower. Basically the chain link will scrape a little dirt off of the high spots and drop it in the low spots. It may take a little while but as long as it's not too bad this will work wonders for smoothing out the bumps. If it were me, I would hold off doing anything that will leave you with bare dirt for now. Otherwise you will end up with more weeds to deal with and there's a good chance you could have some soil erosion from storms or heavy rains during the summer. Leaving the weeds alone will allow them to hold the soil in place. From there, get started with the "destruction" process in mid to late July. About 1 week prior spray everything with RoundUp to kill off all of the weeds. Once the destruction is complete and the lawn area has been smoothed and ready for seed begin watering lightly 3 times per day for a couple of weeks to germinate any weed seeds that were left behind. By lightly I mean just enough to keep the very top layer of soil damp. Spray anything green again with RoundUp. By this time all this is done you will be into your ideal time for seeding which should be mid to late August for you. In the meantime, use the search feature here to learn proper seeding, watering, fertilizing, and all the other stuff involved in maintaining the new lawn as all this is important if you want the lawn to be successful. It's really not too hard but you don't want to spend all this money to have it go wrong. You've got a good group of folks here on the forums to help you through it and answer any questions that come up along the way.
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What is the rose you are planting? Looking at the picture of your main house, I think you could put a rose there too. Two in fact - one by the fence to the right of the stairs, and the other on the left end trained up around the window like you're doing on the shed. I would run your rose questions by the rose forum. They can guide you to the best varieties for the locations and conditions you have. E.g., something that will stay close to the wall, climb 10 feet, be thornless, flexible canes that can be trained as you like, hardy to the zone below yours so there will be cane dieback so you're starting all over each year, reliable repeat blooming (or big one time show), attractive foliage against the color of the wall, a scent that wafts into your window or across the yard or requires putting your nose to the petals, etc etc. The right choice will make a big difference.
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boxofrox
16 years ago
I know a lot of people don't like curb but I sure do, especially when it comes to a lawn. It allows you to have that perfect, crisp edge with minimum labor and also allows you to pack depth behind it for your beds. I'm on hardpan and had to import a lot of topsoil and amend it and I love it. This bed in the foreground is about 30" deep.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1093955}}
flora2
16 years ago
What a beautiful garden. Thanks for sharing it with us.
pianojuggler
16 years ago
How tall (deep) is that curb? How deep into the ground do you have to sink a barrier to keep grass from crossing it?
boxofrox
16 years ago
I think the typical extruded curb is about 6x6. It's usually laid on a thin bed of 5/8" minus gravel. I had someone do mine, mower edge around the lawn and regular around the beds. I just like the fact that lawn stays in lawn, walkway stays in walkway, and beds stay in beds. The going rate to have someone do it is about $3 a foot for everything. What I really like is I can edge the whole thing with a primitive hand edger in about 5 minutes.

Here's a pic of my back lawn before I did my beds and plantings.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1093956}}

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