Bed Edge with Weed Whacker and Grass Killer

I normally edge my beds with a spade and go all the way around by jumping on the shovel and cutting a 4 inch deep slice all the way around the bed to give it a nice sharp edge and chop off the grass rhizomes trying to spread into the mulch. This takes a long time, and I probably only do it once a year. This new technique I'm using is a great option between more thorough bed edgings because it's quick and still leaves a nice clean result.

Clean bed edge where grass meets river rocks

I turned my weed whacker on its side in the edging configuration, like I'd use on the sidewalk, where the string trimmer is spinning vertically. I whacked all along the edge and actually had to beat back the grass in some places where it was not only growing horizontal over the edge it was actually creeping into the bed slowly. Once I whacked all the way around, I went back and sprayed some weed and grass killer very lightly right along the edge to hopefully kill off any rhizomes and deter the grass from growing into the mulch at least for a little while.

The result was a nice clean edge, albeit with a border of brown from dead grass. You can go back and easily sweep or pull the dead grass away, and it was much easier than digging out rooted grass along the border.


Overall, meh, nice clean look - another option for a quick trim but I probably won't ditch the spade approach altogether. I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this, I consider it "chemical edging" or something like that by adding the spray. Emphasis on the light spray, you don't want a brown ring around your entire bed.