What Do You Use to Line Your Stone Flower Bed?

Black Plastic Base Liner

• Most landscape gravel is heavier than topsoil. Even lightweight stone, like scoria lava rock, can become heavy when you place several inches of stone at the land surface. Install a plastic liner to keep the stone on top of the garden soil. You can purchase black liner at home improvement stores and flower nurseries. This landscape liner will keep your stones in the flowerbed at the land surface and help to control weeds in the area.

Trench Edge Liner

• For a natural appearance to your landscape, install a trench liner along the edge of each flowerbed. Stones that move throughout the bed due to wind or rain will drop into the trench before entering the grass lawn. This edge lining method is inexpensive; however, it is labor intensive because you must dig the trenches and then maintain them by keeping the rocks from accumulating in them. If the trench becomes full of stone, it will no longer protect the lawn from gravel.

Plastic Rolled Border Liner

• Plastic bed edge liner is available at home improvement and floral nurseries. You can install this material along the edge of the flowerbeds by burying several inches into the ground and leaving the remaining height above the land surface. Stakes secure the plastic liner into the ground to keep it from moving. This material is inexpensive, requires little maintenance and provides a solid barrier against the gravel so that it does not migrate into the adjacent lawn.

Brick and Stone Border Liner -- Faux and Real

• Brick and stone borders provide a natural liner to flowerbeds. You can use bricks, cobbles or boulders of the same stone that is in flowerbed to create a uniform appearance in the landscape or choose contrasting material for accent. In addition to natural stone, you can purchase faux bricks and stone if you prefer. With these materials, you can create an airy, open edge row or you can level the soil along the edge of the bed and create a solid liner using mortar or sand to fill in between the brick and stones.