Low growing Nepeta is really nice at the front of the border and a very hardy and easy plant to grow, blooms all season long if you shear back occasionally.

I want to look for a pink cultivar this season.

Sharon

Oh, I thought you meant edging like plastic edging or brick or landscape ties...

If that is what you mean, I like brick dug in to create a mowing edge. That's the easiest. I have landscape ties in the back yard - eventually as they rot (as some are already doing) I'd like to replace them with brick. I also have some areas with rock (fieldstone) but it needs an edging in front. I dug a trench and filled it with sand which keeps the grass from growing back and still gives a surface for the lawnmower wheels to run on.

LOL, I thought Ang meant plant!

I trench too and Round-Up.

I use the brick as well. I usually put in the black plastic edgings and follow the line with brick. I do like the idea of trenching and using sand.

My yard is a bit sloped, so on the lower part I have brick that is flat to create a mowing edge and on the higher spots I have a very low retaining wall. The flat bricks give a smooth transition to the flower beds with very little maintainance, and all the focus is on the flower bed itself. I do like the look of the raised brick area since it can tie in other hardscaping if you have any. We have two different patios that are made of similar brick work, so I think that by having the raised edge between these patios it makes the lines in my yard more continuous. It is more work since you have to be willing to whipper snip after you mow the grass though.
In a previous house we used the heavy duty plastic egding from Costco. It also had to be whipper snipped along, but did keep the grass from growing into the flower beds. For us cost was the deciding factor. In the first house we landscaped we used plastic edging, but this house I really wanted bricks. The raised brick edging has the benefit of being able to see some of what you've paid for! The plastic edging does work though - although I recommend laying it out in the sun to soften before trying to shape it to the curves of you bed. But I really prefer the natural look of stones or bricks since they blend well with plants and mulches of all kinds. I have seen some really nice edging used of recycled bricks that have been salvaged from renovation projects, so if you have access to any cheaper bricks that is a nice option as well.

Janet

Thanks for the great ideas! Hey Sharon, plant ideas are very welcome too!

I like the idea of having a mowing edge of some sort. Cost shouldn't be too much of an issue since most of my flower beds are edged by the walkways and only a bit of it is exposed to the lawn. Salvaged brick!? Now I'm kicking myself for letting the hubby get rid of some bricks last summer... grrrr

I recently saw a photo of some flower beds just edged with flagstone(quite large pieces and wide enough to walk on) then the beds were planted with plants that hung out over the edge of the flagstone. It looked very nice, simple and seemed practical to me. They used slate in the photo which I thought made it really classy. I think it was a Canadian Gardening mag, but I couldn't find it in the latest one, so I must have been looking at an older issue :(

For me I just use the black or green roll edging, costs about $3 to $4 a roll. I position it so it's about half an inch to an inch above the ground, just enough so grass can't creep into the flower bed, but low enough that the wheel of the lawnmower can go over it, without cutting it.

The other day I saw a big tree surrounded with an old tractor tire, to each his own I guess.

Glen

After several years of fighting with the black lawn edging around the flowerbeds with the lawn tractor we pulled it out and use an edging tool. I heap on the praise with DH on what an awesome job he does with edging..his lines are so neat and even..I rarely have to do the job myself ;-)savona

Ang, it was the Fall 2007 issue of Canadian Gardening that showed the flagstone used for edging...and I guess it wasn't slate, it just looked dark. But wouldn't slate be purty?