What to Use, When Is the Best Time, and Why its Important
Edging is one of the easiest ways to make your yard look clean, professional, and well maintained. Whether you’re doing it yourself or working with a local landscaping company, edging helps define your lawn and gives everything a crisp, polished appearance.
What Is Lawn Edging?
Edging creates a clear border between your lawn and other areas of your landscape, like garden beds, walkways, driveways, and patios. It stops grass from creeping into unwanted spaces and gives your property a tidy, finished look. Clean, well-defined edges instantly improve curb appeal.
Why Edging Matters
- Adds definition between the lawn and surrounding features
- Prevents grass and weeds from spreading into beds and walkways
- Makes mowing and trimming easier and more efficient
- Improves the look and structure of your entire yard
These benefits of edging make it an essential part of regular landscape maintenance.
Types of Edging In Maine
In Maine, we typically use two kinds of edging:
- Natural Edging A shallow trench is cut between the lawn and adjacent beds. It blends naturally into the landscape and is easy to maintain through the season.
- Hard Edging Materials like stone, brick, plastic, or metal create a permanent border. These are ideal for clients who want a more structured and low-maintenance look.
When to Hard Edge Your Lawn In Maine
We usually edge in the spring, then again in midsummer if needed. Some homeowners also like to refresh the edges in the fall to keep things tidy going into winter. Once or twice a season is typically enough to keep your lawn looking sharp.
Should You Do It Yourself?
You can edge on your own with a manual edger or a string trimmer, and this works fine for small yards. But it can be hard to get consistent lines across an entire property. If you want clean, professional results, hiring a landscaping crew with commercial-grade tools is a great option.
Do We Offer Edging?
We do. At Garden Guys Landscaping, edging is part of our regular mowing and landscape maintenance services. Whether you’re cleaning up the edges of garden beds, walkways, or your entire yard, we can help. If you’re already receiving our mowing or seasonal cleanup services, edging is typically included.
FAQs
How often should edging be done? Once or twice a season is usually enough, depending on how quickly your lawn grows and how polished you want things to look.
Is edging included in your lawn care services? Yes. For our regular maintenance clients, we include edging as part of mowing and property upkeep.
What tools do you use to edge lawns? We use commercial stick edgers and redefiners to create clean, consistent lines along beds, walkways, and driveways.
Do you offer edging near me? Yes. We provide professional edging and full yard services across Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Portland, Scarborough, and nearby towns.
Lawn Edging Services in Southern Maine
Looking for lawn edging near me or dependable yard services? Garden Guys Landscaping provides expert edging, mowing, and seasonal care throughout Southern Maine. If you need reliable, local support with landscape maintenance near you, we are here to help.
Schedule a Hard Edging Estimate
Edge types and how each holds up in Maine
- Spade-cut edge: a clean vertical cut on the lawn side sloping back into the bed. Nothing to heave or break, and it can be reshaped any time. It needs recutting once or twice a season.
- Steel or aluminum edging: a thin, nearly invisible line that holds a curve well. It must be staked deep enough to resist frost, and the top edge should sit just above soil level so mowers pass over it.
- Plastic edging: the least expensive option, but the most prone to heaving and to being chewed up by string trimmers.
- Stone, granite cobble or brick: durable and handsome. Set on a compacted gravel base, or in concrete, so they do not tip or settle. A flush row also works as a mowing strip, so one wheel of the mower runs on the stone and no trimming is needed.
Why frost pushes edging out of the ground
Frost heave happens when water in the soil freezes and expands, lifting whatever is embedded in it. Maine's repeated freeze and thaw cycles, especially in late fall and early spring, jack shallow edging up a little more each time. By April, plastic or loosely staked metal edging can be sitting well above the lawn.
- Wet, fine-textured soils heave the most. Improving drainage along the bed edge helps.
- Set edging deeper and stake it more often than the minimum on the package.
- Stone and brick edges need a gravel base that drains, not bare soil.
- Check edges every spring once the ground thaws and reset anything that lifted before mowing season starts.
Edges next to driveways and walks
Lawn edges along pavement take a beating in winter. Plows and snowblowers catch raised edging and tear up turf, and salt spray browns the first foot of grass. Mark vulnerable edges with snow stakes before the first storm, keep hard edging flush with the pavement, and plan to recut and patch those strips each spring.
A season-by-season edging routine
- Spring: recut spade edges once the soil is workable, reset heaved sections, and pull grass runners out of beds before they root.
- Early summer: freshen the lines before mulch is topped up, since a crisp edge holds mulch in the bed. Our guide to common mulching mistakes covers mulch depth.
- Midsummer: a light touch-up where grass is creeping, following the regular mowing schedule.
- Fall: a final recut before winter keeps the bed shape through the snow.
Near trees, keep edging cuts shallow, since cutting through surface roots injures the tree.
Edging is part of our landscape maintenance services in Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth and our other maintenance towns. For clean transitions between lawn and patios or walks, see our guide to hardscape transitions.