Ornamental Garden Edging

You've got a bunch of options for outlining the border around your garden. One way is to use large shrubs like butterfly bushes, but today we want to look at other methods for edging your garden. Using a trellis is a great way to mark the boundaries of your garden while keeping a natural look. Plant vines around the base of your trellis like roses, sweet pea, or even grape and watch them grown and flower all spring and summer. One word of caution, a metal trellis may match your taste and existing landscaping, but it's not good for climbing plants. The metal will get very hot during the summer, and may stunt the growth of your vines. But if you want the trellis as a decorative accent and not a support for vines, you'll find most metal trellises fancier than wooden ones.

Another option for your border is a Pergola. A Pergola is made by supporting an open lattice on a series of pillars. When you train woody vines to grow over the lattice, you get a nice shaded area for your garden. You can either use this area as a walkway or put benches or a table and chairs to make a nice shaded area to enjoy tour garden. Putting a pergola in your garden is a lot more complicated than putting up a trellis, but if you're really handy or willing to pay someone who is, you'll get years of enjoyment out of it.

A simple yet effective way to edge your yard is with garden stones or decorative bricks. This method creates a much more open look and isn't anywhere near as obtrusive as other means of outlining your garden. You'll find a large selection of fancy bricks at the garden shop of your local home improvement store. Most will be either red or white, and they come in different shapes depending on the curvature of the area you want to outline. For a more natural look, large stones (or small boulders) will do the trick. You may find these at a local "Big Box" store, but you're more likely to find them at a locally owned garden specialty store. You'll have tones of options from flat river rocks that you can use to build up a small wall to large pieces of irregularly shaped quarts or granite you can just place on the ground around your garden.

Yet another option is some type of decorative fencing. While you can use fencing as a purely decorative addition to your garden, it has practical applications too. If you live in a rural area, you've probably had deer come into your yard and eat your plants down to the roots. Putting fencing around your garden can help keep some of these pests out. In an urban area, fences can give you a little bit of privacy you wouldn't otherwise have. Because putting up a fence is one of the more expensive additions to your garden, decide exactly what you want from your fence before you start looking for the style that suits you best.

These are just a few of the ways to outline your garden. The best gardens, however, don't use just one border method. Putting a solid border like a fence or a trellis in part of your garden for privacy while leaving other areas open can create a warm and inviting garden.