I saw some neat composite edging at Lowes the other day. It comes in brown/black. It will give you a raised edge that can be shaped easily. You could use bricks or stones. If you have quirky tastes, I've seen colored bottles stuck upside down for edging. Plus, you could skip the hard edge and use plants: alyssum, marigold, alpine strawberry.

The curved design should add some real interest to your potager.

Hi ali-b -

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response, some ideas that I will probably incorporate into the new potager. I especially had forgotten about using the flowers you mentioned as edging.

What I did figure out last night was that I can get a curved effect very similar to the one I had originally designed using lumber set at angles, end to end. Then maybe I can soften the corners using your ideas - the alyssum, maybe some nasturtiums - so that it really is curved! Thank you so much, I was having a brain cramp trying to solve this, and now I'm off to the lumber store! :)

Donna

You can also purchase metal edging to make curved shapes. We used the edging at first, to hold the mulch into areas around the beds so we could expand the garden slowly. We kept the metal edging, it's so handy to use - even as a temporary bed to try out shapes for a year to see what you like. You can build then permiant bed right around it, then slide the metal edge out, and re-use it elsewhere!

Thanks! I haven't started forming the beds yet - that is a great idea, the metal edging. I know for sure that I want a curved path through our potager - but with one the size of 8' x 18' it's not easy to figure out how all the flowers and vegetables will fit.

I hadn't even thought about a temporary solution to buy me some time - that might really help me out - thanks.

GGG, how do you place the metal edging in the beds? I realize if the soil is nice and fluffy it would push right in but since I'm just starting another new bed It's going to take some time to get it to the fluffy stage. Can you pound it in with a mallet once the soil is turned?

Thanks,
MeMo

Memo, you buy stakes that fit into grooves and pound them in with a mallet. We waited until after a rain and went and pounded in rock solid red clay and tree roots over an old lawn and where a maple tree was. Only one or two challenges!

ali-b - Thanks so much for the tip about the composite edging! I bought some and ended up doing two semicircles with it, in my potager. I think that its appearance is the nicest of any that the store had, too. Also, the instructions on installing it in a garden are pretty easy. I am really happy with how that part of the garden turned out. Thanks for the info!

I'm glad the edging worked out for you. It really looks like a neat product.