How to Install Metal Edging Around Trees

Your trees do better if they are not competing with a lawn for nutrients, and your lawn does better if it isn't growing under your trees. The competition between the two for the soil tends to weaken both, but this problem has an easy solution: Create landscape areas for your trees and plants and edge around them so the grass cannot creep inside the area.

Spray paint
Shovel
Edging
Hammer
Metal snips
Mulch
Top soil
Water hose

Instructions

- 1
  Paint an area around the trees with spray paint to establish the landscape area. Decide on the size and shape of the landscape area around your trees, and then use spray paint to outline it. The area needs to be at least 3 to 6 feet out from the base of the trees on all sides to accommodate any shallow roots that might develop over time. This is especially true with trees such as maples, which are notorious for having shallow roots.
- 2
  Make a slice straight down into the soil with a shovel all the way around the trees. Follow the paint outline.
- 3
  Stand on the inside of the outlined area. Use the shovel to dig out the soil at an angle toward the first straight. Start 4 inches away from the straight cut, and dig down and forward until you meet the straight cut. Remove the soil as you go and leave it in the landscape area. This wedge is where you will put the metal edging. The deepest point of the wedge needs to be ½ inch less than the height of the edging.
- 4
  Place the edging in the trench and up against the straight up and down side.
- 5
  Slip a metal stake into the end piece and tap it into the soil to secure it.
- 6
  Slide pieces of edging together to extend the metal around the landscape area. The pieces have slots on the ends that allow you to connect the pieces together.
- 7
  Put stakes through the anchor holes and tap them in at each location. Slowly move around the entire landscape area. Once you get around to your starting point, use metal snips to cut the edging to fit.
- 8
  Fill in the area behind the edging with dirt to stabilize the back side of the metal strips.
- 9
  Cover the landscape area with mulch to kill any grass in the area. If you are going to plant a few shrubs in the landscaping, add top soil first and plant the vegetation before covering with mulch. Covering the grass is better than trying to dig it out, since digging over the entire area might harm the root system of the trees.
- 10
  Water the new landscape area to moisten the mulch. The material will trap moisture for the trees and plants, so that you do not have to continually water.

How to Dig Up Rocks in My Lawn Quickly

Drainage Problems Around a House's Landscaping

Landscaping Basics