There are so many aspects to designing and putting together a landscape. It is easy to overlook some of the smaller details or forget that some of the more practical provisions in your garden can be made into ornamental assets. One of these details is how you handle the garden edging design materials that surround garden beds. Sometimes transitions are naturally defined by the surrounding walkways or buildings. Sometimes they need to be created out of undefined space. The way you outline your garden spaces will become part of your design.
If you have a theme in your garden, whether it is style, color, subject matter or anything else the materials you use can help accentuate the theme. Examples might be to use bricks to edge an English garden bed, bamboo to create a border for an Asian garden, or even sunken wagon wheels as a railing to line a section of a Western garden.
Rusted metal forms an effective border edging
Here’s an example of how corrugated metal can create an interesting contemporary effect. It demonstrates how recycled materials can become artistic.
Another example of how to illustrate an Asian theme is to use varied stone materials.
Stone textures create a painting of textures for this Asian edging effect.
Plants themselves can edge garden areas. Use neatly clipped shrubs for a formal look or low, sprawling plants for an informal edging.
A path can harmonize with plants to delineate garden boundaries.
Rocks can form an edging — from neatly stacked walls to lined up chunks to vertical pieces stood on their edges. Large rocks can be set in place or a mixture of rocks, boulders and other stones can be designed into patterns or shapes.
Rocks can be used in many ways to define a garden edge.
These are just some ideas how you can turn plain garden edges into something exciting in your landscape. Have you seen any additional edging materials that you would like to share? Add your thoughts in the comments below so others can expand their own interpretations and blend these concepts to their own gardens
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