How Deeply Do You Bury Composite Landscape Edging?

Features

• Composite edging will mold to your landscape designs, unlike the edging materials it resembles in appearance. Most composite edging is made to look like wood from a distance, but it also may look like bricks or other materials. Unlike any of those materials, composite edging can be bent in a way similar to plastic, and so it can be used to edge a variety of plant bed shapes. When installed properly, composite edging lasts for years.

Design

• Installation of composite landscape edging starts with a layout or design. If you already have a plant bed, then the design is already handled. If not, then a garden hose and some spray paint will help you figure out a design. Lay the hose in the area where you want a plant bed, and move the hose until it forms a shape you'd like for the plant bed. Spray paint on the ground next to the hose to mark the plant bed's design, and then remove the hose.

Trench

• A trench dug along the spray-painted outline of the plant bed is an important step during the edging's installation process. A portion of the edging must be buried, not only to help stabilize the product but to allow it to perform its main function: keeping weeds out and plant bed materials in. Burying a portion of the edging in the ground blocks weeds and grass that otherwise may grow into the plant bed. The trench's depth depends on the width of the composite edging; in many cases, the trench's depth is 4 to 6 inches. Your composite edging's instructions will note the required trench depth. Also, the amount of edging that stays above ground also depends on the product. Some composite edging is meant to be buried almost fully in the ground, leaving about only 1 inch of it above ground. Other composite edging, however, is meant to have more than about 1 inch of it above ground due to its design, such as composite edging designed to look like a wood border.

Installation

• The installation procedure for the various kinds of composite edging is fairly similar. The trench needs a straight horizontal edge on one side so the material can rest flush against that side. The edging is then anchored in place in the trench with the stakes that come with the product. After the trench is filled with the soil that was removed to create the trench, the plant-bed side of the edging is covered with mulch.