How to Keep a Lawn and Garden Beds Separate | This Old House

This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shows how to establish borders around grassy areas using steel edging. (See below for a shopping list and tools.)

Shopping List for How to Keep a Lawn and Garden Beds Separate:
- steel edging
- glyphosate herbicide, used to kill grass in garden bed
- 4-inch-wide foam brushes

Tools for How to Keep a Lawn and Garden Beds Separate:
- half-moon edger
- square shovel
- wheelbarrow
- hammer
- chemical-resistant gloves and safety glasses, worn when applying herbicide

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How to Keep a Lawn and Garden Beds Separate | This Old House

[gabriellec]

Instead of using glyphosate to kill the grass, it’s much more effective (and fast) to put down a heavy duty tarp to deprive it of light. Get a tarp as thick as you can, make sure it blocks out 100% of the light, and leave it on the grass until it gets smothered out. This will give you a very uniform result.

[Zoetropeification]

If the homeowner is going to mulch this bed then all he needs to do to kill the grass is buy his mulch in plastic bags. Lay the full bags, touching side by side,  on the area where he wants to kill the grass. 7 to 10 days later the grass is dead.

[Solarplexus]

Monsanto manages to make their way into even my favorite youtube channel

[shawnhill]

That metal edging wont make for "NO MAINTENANCE" on the edge. It will help with maintaining the weeds and lawn but it definitely won't eliminate weeds from growing over or under that metal edge.

[dddhhh]

Steel or plastic borders are much easier to install when the ground is nice and flat, like in this video. Harder when you have elevation changes.

[dsmith]

Great vid this is exactly what I need as my neighbors grass keeps spreading into my rock bed thanks!

[vincent]

yeah...i'm not painting grass. I'm pulling it all out and starting fresh.

[mikeleroy]

What you can do is. Make a wooden frame with a .5 inch square mesh. Place it over the wheel barrel and sift out the weed/grass and fill in low spots in the yard with the dirt. This can be raked into the yard. The weeds and grass can be placed in a compost pile. This works for me.

[KR-nmwm]

For all you southern folk "air barrier" is pronounced Ear-BARRY-Ya (1:12 reference).

[YSLRD]

I have yet to find an effective barrier for Bermuda grass. The roots are at least a foot deep. I use mulch and then a soil knife when it inevitably encroaches.

[_JellyDonut_]

I love the way they talk on this show, such a great accent

[mattc]

And if the grass grows back, it won't be a big deal because you'll be busy dealing with non-hodgkins lymphoma from that glyphosate.

[Mikesgirl]

I lay cardboard down and cover it with mulch it works really well killing the grass and it’s biodegradable.

[simple-steve]

Would probably be faster to just pull the grass lol. Painting with Gly? no way. Juniper can actually handle a little gly getting on them.

[propaneandpropaneaccessori]

If you really must paint the grass I think a better option would be use a roller and extension pole lol

[DarkRaptor]

I love that metal edging it looks nice, durable, easy too install, and relatively affordable. Also the pesticide glyphosphate isn't too dangerous its in residential herbicide. You only get in trouble with really high concentrations.

[Bessmaster]

Using a Monsanto product to save a juniper bush? Folks, let’s use our heads.

[thedyslexic]

I put 2x8 pressure treated (ok for ground contact) lumber as an edging with 1'2 left above to run my mower wheels against and weed whack after. I started doing this to keep the grass from invading our garden space and then just continued on to the flower beds. Any thoughts on this, good or bad?

[KR-nmwm]

If I could just get this guy to talk while I work, it would provide enough distraction from the hard work itself to actually get this done.

[robertswift]

lmao@ painting me if you ever see me painting grass blades