Creative Edging Ideas

Upcycled and Recycled Items

• Green up your edging with upcycled and recycled items. Some gardeners shop at thrift shops for sets of decorative though slightly used inexpensive saucers or dinner plates that they bury halfway to create a scalloped-top border. A host of painted tin cans, turned upside down and tamped with a small sledgehammer, is a quick and simple edging choice. Another idea is to create a shimmering stream that flows at the edge of your lawn or flowerbed by using tumbled glass mulch.

Found Objects

• A collection of found objects -- from the natural to the whimsical -- can make an interesting edging presentation. Sparkling quartz rocks interspersed with driftwood, large sea shells and chunks of smooth beach glass create a beach house theme and provide ready conversation-openers to share with first-time visitors. If you want a more rustic look, choose an edging of large pieces of tree bark and green mosses periodically interrupted with blue fescue (Festuca glauca "Elijah Blue") or any other feathery, tall grass. Blue fescue is hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant hardiness zones 4 through 8.

Natural and Repurposed Wood

• Downed branches and limbs that are reshaped as needed to suit your garden or lawn can provide a natural border between yard and garden elements. Ensure the wood is insect-free, however, and remove all suckers, or sprouts, from it, before you install the wood. Old fencing and barn wood made from untreated materials can find new life in your yard as repurposed edging materials crafted in the shape of birdhouses. Natural wood doesn't release toxic chemicals, unlike pressure-treated wood.

Living Elements

• A growable and mowable -- and sometimes edible -- edging may suit the gardener in you. Low-growing and sweet-scented alyssum (Lobularia maritima) presents a fluffy, foamy edge that contrasts nicely with either green lawn or tall garden plants. Mix the white, lavender and deep purple varieties for a variegated look. English thyme (Thymus vulgaris), hardy in USDA zones 5 through 9, can be clipped for use in stews, soups and butters, and it emits a sweet fragrance when crushed underfoot. Try edging with creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera) for showy, rich color. Creeping phlox is hardy in USDA zones 5 through 9.