One of the most common activities in the garden is mowing the lawn. The work itself is not difficult. However, I know from experience how troublesome it can be to trim trees growing on the lawn.
How to build functional and aesthetic lawn edges?
Usually, after doing the main part of mowing, that is working with a mower, I started the "artistic" part, i.e. manual trimming. For this purpose, I used a string trimmer and grass shears. Unfortunately, it quickly put me off. So I thought that I would sprinkle the trees with bark… The mower was blowing it with the force of the air stream, and you could only hear the knife cracking, shredding the mulch into pieces.Misfire.
Another idea was to frame the plants with semicircular stakes purchased at a garden market. Yes, they did hold the bark around the tree, but the mower could not fully remove the grass at the base of the fence. Back to the scissors again. Misfire.
It was only in the third year of lawn care that I decided to generally change all the edges. I wanted it to be something permanent, because the fence started to rot after the first winter. I used a 4 cm thick colored curb to frame the trees, and a colorful palinea to finish the rebates. Palinea is a decorative border that resembles a palisade. This solution was quite cheap. I could use the so-called concrete logs, but one with a diameter of 11 centimeters costs about 4.5 PLN. Half a meter long Palinea - PLN 11.
I made the edges of the trees as follows. First, I marked a 50 cm square around each of them. Then I chose the soil by 20 cm from it.Along the sides of the square I poured a mixture of dry sand and cement (25 kg of cement per 40 shovels of sand). On this mix, I positioned the curbs so that they would overlap at the corners. To arrange them well, I hit each one evenly with a rubber mallet. Then, to the center of the square, I poured back a part of the soil - to a height of about 7 cm from the upper edge of the curbs. I beat her gently. Then I covered the ground with black foil, on which I poured a layer of colored gravel (you can also use bark). Then I gently chose a strip of soil - 10 cm wide and 10 cm deep - around the already formed square. I poured a mixture of sand and cement into the resulting "moat", trampled it and gently leveled it with a piece of plank. On the resulting foundation, I put a paving stone with a thickness of 6 cm. A correctly placed cube should protrude about 2-3 cm above the lawn. Now I needed a wooden square (4x5 cm). I placed it on the ankle strap along each side of the square and hit it with a hammer.This caused the pavement to sink evenly into the undercoat. Finally, I "tapped" them so that they protrude 1-2 cm above the lawn, and moistened the whole with water. There is no need to worry about the level difference, because after 3-4 years the lawn will be level with the cube.
Mowing? Just pleasure!
Ever since I used these facilities, the mower runs one wheel over the ankle at the curb when mowing the grass. The grass is cut aesthetically and there is no risk of injuring the tree.
When it comes to discounts, I did the same as in the case of edgings for trees. Around the so-called the island in the middle of the garden, I used palinea, and along the fence where Douglas fir grows, I used railway sleepers. They should last for several years. I also marked the base of the sleepers with a line of paving stones. I think it is both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.
Necessary tools and work completion date
You will need the following resources to complete the work:
- sand - depending on the size of the work (I bought2 tons for my garden),
- cement (1/2 bag of 25 kg per tree),
- palinea or curb (4 x 50 cm per tree),
- cube - 2 linear meters (0.2 m²) per tree. The cost is about40 PLN per m²)
Useful also:
- shovel,
- wheelbarrow,
- rubber mallet (such a tool can be easily purchased in garden stores).
If someone would like to apply similar solutions, I advise you to start work in autumn (after the grass has finished growing) or in early spring (before the blades start to grow). All robots involve a large number of wheelbarrow rides across the lawn, and this destroys it. When everything goes well, satisfaction is guaranteed. Good luck!
Jarosław Radziszewski
