Landscaping Ideas: How to Embrace Your Lawn and Garden

If you want to enhance the landscape around your flower garden, consider adding a stone edge. Laying a stone edge not only makes your yard more attractive, but it provides you with a weed barrier and mowing edge. Another bonus is it keeps pets and kids from trampling on your lovely flowers. Here are some tips to lay a stone edging around your flower garden.

Prepare to Work

For this project, you need:

• work gloves
• safety glasses
• tape measure
• carpenter's level
• watering can
• garden hose or string
• stakes or landscaping spray paint
• coarse sand
• wood mallet
• hand tamper
• two by four piece of wood or digging bar
• spade or half-moon edger
• mulch
• plastic strips
• stone edging

Wearing work gloves and safety glasses, remove weeds and obstructions from the flower garden so you  can make accurate measurements. Use a garden hose or string to mark the area where you want the edging.

Move the string or hose until you have the desired shape, and avoid making tight curves or corners, because you will have trouble mowing around them. Spray landscaping paint along the edge of the hose. If you are using string, tie string on the stakes, and press them about one inch into the ground.

Dig the Trench

When you shop, measure several stones to estimate their average height. Decide how high off the ground you want them to lay, deduct this number from the average stone height, then add one inch to allow for sand. This is how deep you need to dig the trench.

Dig the trench along the marked line with the spade or half-moon edger, and remove the soil to shape the trench. The width should be one-inch wider than the widest stone. If you prefer, set plastic strips in the soil the width of the trench to serve as a weed barrier.

Lay the Stones

Pour coarse sand 1/2 inch to one inch high in the trench for better drainage of soil and leveling of stones. Pack the sand with the hand tamper. If the trench is narrow, use a digging bar or two by four piece of wood.

Set the first stone in place, pack some dirt you removed earlier around the stone to stabilize it, and tap the stone gently with the mallet. Lay the remaining stones in the same manner using the first one as a guide for height placement. Try to place stones of the same size together to prevent gaps.

Use carpenter's level to ensure the height is the same, and adjust sand depth, if needed. Fill gaps with the soil you removed earlier, and spread mulch on the flower garden side. Water the stone edging to help secure it.

A stone edging makes your flower garden more attractive. If you need more landscaping ideas, ScenicView Landscapes, or you don't trust your skill, contact landscaping service.