Many of us look upon those lawns that are so well taken care of and so well mowed, with their beautifully crisp lawn edges, often with a touch of envy, or if not then at least with a little wondering at how we could achieve those same lawn edges ourselves. Lawn edging doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, and we too can have crisp lawn edges with a little planning and practice. So let’s take a look at a few different ways we can edge our lawns along pathways and garden beds alike.
Three Wheeled Lawn Edgers
The usually 3 wheeled commercial or domestic lawn edging machines, which can be purchased at specialty lawn mower shops or at the big retailers, dependent on which machine we are looking to purchase, are probably the most stable of the lawn edging options.
These lawn edging machines will cut a crisp clean edge line for us along pathways and garden edging. To turn around rounded lawn corners we would lift up the back end of the machine to balance on the front wheel so as to easily trim the edges of such lawn shapes.
Straight blades for commercial lawn edgers are cost effective and are yet cheaper when bought in bulk. Domestic grade 3 wheeled lawn edgers may use a blade type which is only available from a single retailer and which may be expensive as a once off purchase, however for the homeowner who is only taking care of their own lawn then the cost of these blades is completely irrelevant as a single blade may last a year or more for single lawn use.
MowMaster produce an Australian made commercial lawn edger, as an example.
Safety And Powered Lawn Edgers
Needless to say that these machines are very dangerous and must be used with extreme care, so that no clothing ever becomes caught by the exposed spinning blade, and that the blade neither touches up against any other object.
A power switch at the handle of the machine is a wonderful idea, and is a very wise optional extra if purchasing a commercial lawn edger.
Clutch models that stop the spinning blade until a lever is engaged are also available on commercial lawn edgers, though these will add quite a bit extra to the price of the machine, and the type of clutch used may not be to everyone’s preference, though they are a popular option, mostly used by councils and other similar large organisations.
Lightweight Dedicated Lawn Edgers
These lawn edging machines use a smaller engine than the 3 wheeled lawn edgers and they usually have a single front wheel or other similar setup. The entire frame of these lawn edgers is built to be light and strong and easy to use for almost anyone. They can be easily packed away when not in use, and their light weight and single front wheel design means they can be manoeuvred around lawn edges without difficulty.
Blades can be of an unusually shaped design and can be expensive, however if we’re talking about the ownership and use of these lawn edgers by a single homeowner then once again this cost is completely irrelevant as a single blade may last the homeowner a year or two years, or perhaps even longer.
Atom build highly popular lightweight lawn edgers as an example.
Lawn Edging Power Tool Attachments
There are many different multi-tool garden tools on the market today, both petrol and cordless battery equipment. Some of these multi-tools may arrive to us as a line trimmer or a hedge trimmer perhaps, but we soon discover that the cutting end of the machine is completely detachable and that any number of other garden tools can be quickly attached to that same tool head, giving us any number of garden tool combinations.
One such attachable tool can be a lawn edging tool. These will often use a blade for its cutting edge, and often these blades will also be supplied and sold by the same manufacturer.
I don’t have any experience with such tools so cannot comment on their use.
Ego make a lawn edging attachment for their multi-tool cordless power tool, as an example.
Line Trimmer As An Edging Tool
Many contractors around Australia who may not use a commercial lawn edging machine as standard may instead use a line trimmer to cut their lawn edges, and even those contractors who do use blade edgers will also still need to cut some lawn edgers with their line trimmer.
It does take some practice and a steady hand to get this skill down pat, and mistakes can lead to chunks being taken out of our lawns - though they will repair, and as our skill improves with regular practice so too will the quality of our lawn edges also improve.
Using a line trimmer to do our garden and pathway lawn edging can be a good use of our available garden tools that we already have on hand, without the extra expenditure of buying other outdoor power equipment that perhaps we’d rather not buy. So rest assured that with the right amount of practice we should get our lawn edges and skill up to scratch in no time using the line trimmer method.
Hand Tools To Cut Lawn Edges
There are lawn edging hand tools which can be purchased from hardware stores, and they are best suited to cutting lawn edges along hard surfaces such as pathways very quickly and simply.
Along soft garden edges we may find that a spade may be best utilised to cut our lawn edges into a clean edge, though a line trimmer may do a cleaner job, and a blade edger of some type will do the best job of all.
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