How to Make a Bed Border

Define the edge of your flower or vegetable garden with a drop-down border, sometimes called a spade-cut edging or border. The soil in a small trench around the perimeter of the bed is replaced with a non-soil material. It is much harder for weeds to thrive in the trench, and it serves to keep almost all weeds from growing past the bed border. One drawback is that the loosely packed materials in the bed border trench will fill in with soil over the course of several seasons. At that point, you simply remove the gravel, sift the soil out of it, and replace it in the trench.

Straight-edge spade
Gravel, pebbles, crushed shells, shredded bark or wood chips

Instructions

- 1
  Drive the straight-edge spade straight into the ground, following the outline of the outside edge of the garden bed. Push the spade into the ground its full depth, holding it so the blade is vertically straight up and down.
- 2
  Stand inside of the garden near the border. Hold the blade of the spade at an angle slightly smaller than 45 degrees, touching the ground about 4 to 6 inches to the inside of the outside edge of the garden. Push the blade of the spade into the soil, maintaining the narrow angle, and stopping when the edge of the spade reaches the original line, at the outer border of the garden bed.
- 3
  Scoop out the soil in the resulting V-shaped trench, placing it in a wheelbarrow or bucket for use elsewhere on your property. Continue all around the border edge of the garden.
- 4
  Fill the trench at the edge of the garden with gravel, pebbles, crushed shells, shredded bark or wood chips.

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