A lawn that’s totally neat and fresh will make any house look better, especially when you’ve got sharp and accurate lawn edges.
However, you might assume that such great-looking lawns will take hours of effort and skill to perfect, or require professionals to come and do. Thankfully, this isn’t the case!
In our handy guide below, we’re going to show you how to cut lawn edges accurately and quickly, allowing you to transform your lawn and improve the look of your home. Read on!
What Is The Benefit Of Neat Lawn Edges?
Before we get onto the process of how to edge your lawn in an accurate, quick manner, it’s worth explaining the many benefits of why you would want to do such a thing in the first place.
Many of us will have a regular habit of mowing our lawn, and that’s how we keep it looking good to begin with. However, if you want it to look as absolutely neat and sharp as possible, then it will also require periodical lawn edging.
The key difference between those who have nice lawns and those who have great lawns can be down to edging, because they’re the last touch of making your lawn look spectacular.
Naturally, a beautiful-looking lawn has benefits of its own. For one, it’ll make your house look wonderful and tidy, helping it to stand out amongst the homes of all your neighbors.
On top of that, it’ll be a point of personal pride that makes you feel great each day. When you come home from work, you’ll be proud to be pulling into your driveway, thanks to the fabulous lawn next to it!
What Will You Need To Edge Your Lawn?
Before we explain how to edge your lawn, you’ll need to make sure that you have the correct tools for the job.
Though the following list of tools is long, you’ll thankfully only need one of the items, because each of them are perfectly capable of edging your lawn (except the edging barriers!).
However, you’ll want to find the tool that works best for you and the one that you’re most comfortable with.
Since these are tools with sharp edges, you want to ensure that you feel safe and confident using them, otherwise it could be dangerous.
An Electric Lawn Edger
This will do the job brilliantly, and won’t be difficult to use either.
Edging Hammer-In Landscape Barriers
You can hammer these barriers into the ground so that you can edge your lawn even more precisely, sticking to the marked-out areas.
Half-Log Wooden Edging Barriers
If you didn’t like the look of the metal or plastic barriers that we just covered, then you can get these wooden alternatives.
They use half-logs and make your garden look even neater, adding a sense of authenticity and style around your flowerbeds, and helping to keep your edging neat and segmented.
A Cordless Electric Lawn Edger
You can get corded or cordless lawn edgers, and each have their benefits. For one, corded edgers will technically last indefinitely as long as they’re plugged in to an electrical outlet.
However, their cords can get in the way, which can be dangerous. As a result, a cordless, battery-powered lawn edger will allow you the freedom to move, though the battery will run out eventually.
A Half-Moon Lawn Edger
These have a half-moon appearance to them and they are manual edgers, which you can use to cut into the ground and make neat edges around your garden.
These are some of the more affordable tools, and useful if you’ve only got a bit of work to do.
A Gas-Stick Lawn Edger
These are like many other lawn edgers, only this one is powered by gas, as opposed to being electrical. As a result, the gas allows them more power, so you can be sure these will do a thorough and powerful job.
A Rotary Lawn Edger
This type of lawn edger is designed to be less effort than a half-moon edger, so these are a good pick if you found the half-moon to be tough work.
A Walk-Behind Gas Lawn Edger
If you’ve got lots of money to spend on the tools, and you’re going to be putting a lot of time and effort into regularly edging your lawn, then the walk-behind gas lawn edger is a good choice.
It’s a powerful edger that will do an impressive job, and you walk behind it to move it.
How To Cut Your Lawn Edges (Accurate And Quick!)
Now that you’ve got the tools that you need for the job, it’s time to look in-depth at how to accurately and quickly cut your lawn edges. Try to follow the same order of events as we do, and keep all of our tips in mind too.
Step One: Mow The Lawn Beforehand
This may seem like an obvious step, but it’s important to note it just in case! If you’re going to edge your lawn, then the lawn will need to have been cut in the first place.
After all, there’s no point in making all the edges look neat if the rest of your lawn is then shabby and overgrown.
As a result, you need to make sure that you mow your lawn thoroughly and properly before you edge it. With all the grass mown, you’ll be able to see the shape of the lawn a lot better, which will allow you to edge more easily and accurately.
Step Two: Keep The Edger Away From Hardscapes
This is a very important thing to keep in mind, because it could ruin your tools if you’re not careful! When you’re using a power lawn edger, you need to make sure that you’re keeping them to the grass.
This may sound obvious, but it can be easy to lead them onto hardscapes such as concrete paths, sidewalks, and other landscaping features.
If the lawn edger goes onto these, it could only only damage your tool, but also damage the hardscapes.
This is bad enough if the hardscapes are yours, but if you’re damaging public ones (like a sidewalk in front of your house), then it’ll be even worse!
So, ensure that you’re edging your lawn right up to the hardscapes, without letting the tool hit those other surfaces.
Step Three: Take Your Time
Since you’re going to be starting as a lawn edging novice, it’s important that you don’t try to rush and do the job quickly.
When you’re not skilled at lawn edging yet, you will need to take your time and ensure that you’re edging carefully and methodically.
However, this doesn’t mean that you’re always going to lawn edging slowly. After all, we said in the title that we’re teaching you how to do it accurately AND quickly!
This is because, like with anything, the more you practice it, the better you’ll become. And the better you become? The quicker you become too!
As your skills and confidence increase with practice, you’ll be able to do a much quicker job of lawn edging, while still retaining all the neatness and accuracy.
However, you must begin by doing it slowly and carefully.
Step Four: Picking Pathways
When you’re doing the lawn edging, you might find yourself automatically walking on the lawn.
However, it’s a good idea to walk on your walkways instead, sticking to pathways and driveways while the tool trims the grass edges.
The reason for this is that these surfaces will be a lot firmer and flatter than your lawn.
Since precision is the name of the game, you’ll want to ensure that you’re using the edge steadily, and it’ll be a lot easier to do that if you’re walking along an even surface.
On top of that, it should make it easier for you to move the lawn edger precisely along the edge of the surface, where the lawn is meeting the pathway.
Step Five: Using Edging Barriers
We covered edging barriers on our list of tools, and they’re exactly what they sound like.
Basically, these are barriers that you insert into the ground around parts of your garden that you want to section off, stopping lawn from spreading over into them.
You can get barriers made out of plastic, wood, or metal.
By using barriers, you’ll have to do less lawn edging yourself, because they can keep the grass in check in certain areas.
Step Six: Trimmer Direction
If you’re using a string trimmer, or something similar, then you’ll need to pay attention to the direction their whirling line or blade is spinning.
If they’re going clockwise, then keep your own movements going from right to left, because it’ll keep the grass displacement a lot neater. Nobody wants their lawn trimmings everywhere!
Step Seven: Avoid Flowers
Just as we said you need to keep your lawn edger from going onto hardscapes, you need to ensure that it doesn’t drift into flower beds either.
Awareness of your surroundings is always key when using any tool, and that’s especially true here! If you’ve got flower beds, or have some lovely plants growing, make sure to keep the edger far away from them.
Final Thoughts
Edging your lawn will make your grass look super neat, which will make your home look even better and more beautiful! Thankfully, lawn edging isn’t difficult, but it does require practice.
Find the tools that you’re most comfortable with using, and make sure to follow all our tips and methods. As you practice more, you’ll find that the edging becomes much quicker!