# How NOT to Create a Landscape Bed



## Hoosier (Jun 12, 2018)

I posted a question a few days ago in relation to a landscape bed project I decided to do, and figured I'd post a follow-up so that people looking to do the same can maybe learn from some of my mistakes :|

The project was to create a bed along the fence line and plant ornamental grass to help break up the monotony of the fence. Also, the maintenance building for the golf course behind our neighborhood is visible, so wanted to add a visual distraction from that.

I created the initial layout, and got rid of as much grass as I could without spraying glyphosate, since I didn't want to overspray other areas of the lawn:





Dug the initial trench using an edging tool:





After I finished this, I realized that I screwed up, and should have made the bed 4 feet deep instead of the initial 3 feet I started with to accommodate how wide the Karl Foerster grass I'm using will get in a couple years. Got super annoyed at myself, took a beer break to contemplate, and was going to just leave it and expand it next year when it gets a bit bigger, but decided to just do it right now. Also, my OCD was getting the best of me, and I was really annoyed that I couldn't get a perfectly straight line (there are a bunch of rocks 2-3 inches deep, which I kept hitting when I was trenching, and removing them kept causing the line to no longer be straight), so this was the real reason that I decided to change it.

So, decided to add a curve to the bed while I made it wider:



After I did this, I got the grass in the ground, and before I started mulching, decided that the curve didn't flow quite how I wanted it to (you can see some choppy areas in the picture above), so kept making minor adjustments of a couple inches to try to get a more continuous curve.

After the minor adjustments of a couple inches turned into bigger adjustments of 6-12 inches, and I had sufficiently butchered the edge, I finally decided to quit messing with it, and here's what I ended up with (still not done with mulch obviously, but the rest is going to have to wait until next weekend):



I'm still not happy with this, but will be good to step away from it for a few days and make a couple final tweaks next weekend before I finish the mulch. I want to see how the grass fills in on the edge so I know if the areas I don't like are because the edge is cut wrong, or if it's just the grass folding over the edge in some spots.

So here's what I learned:
-It's difficult to cut a perfectly straight line 80 feet long, so curving the bed is probably the way to go
-Get some spray paint and draw the curve before digging. This occurred to me early on, but I didn't feel like making another trip to the store to buy the spray paint. I laid it out with some string I had, but that moves when you start digging. -Once you think you're happy with the layout (check it from different viewing angles), walk away for a bit, and see if you still like it when you come back to it. If so, probably good to go to start digging.
-When digging a trench like this, you can always take more away from the edges, but you can't add it back if you cut too far out, which is what I did, and why I ended up with a much bigger cutout that I wanted
-Make sure the ground is fairly moist before cutting the edge. This makes it easier to slice a straight edge, otherwise the dirt kind of crumbles and can make it hard to get a clean line.

Hope this helps for anyone planning something similar in the future!


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

You can also lay a garden hose and trace it for a nice, curved line. I use spray paint for perfect circular radii around trees though.


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

I thought it was going to be this horrible, burned out grass looking thing. It looks pretty nice though.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

One thing you didn't mentioned is Roundup. Yes kill that grass before the mulch.


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## drenglish (Jun 22, 2018)

I wouldn't worry about the edge being chiseled perfectly at the moment. The grass (depending on type) will spread a little and you can redefine it. It also helps cover errors or little mistakes when the grass tufts out along the edge. I've found the cleanest edge I can produce comes from a flat shovel or an edger like this Corona one at Lowe's:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Corona-EdgeMASTER-5-8-in-Carbon-steel-Multipurpose-garden-hand-tool/1000457447

For small beds or when I have a little extra time, I like to use Corona Grass Shears for maintenance work instead of a string trimmer. I'm just not that precise yet with one. Maybe in time.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/corona-6-in-steel-grass-shears/3692700?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-lwn-_-google-_-lia-_-179-_-pruning-_-3692700-_-0&kpid&store_code=2236&k_clickID=go_625853898_42756238775_195633494151_aud-363972024615la-315084819835_m_9026036&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5J_mBRDVARIsAGqGLZDlTX928OOdnUz0N_A_IH8KyR2koOrBrOKsC3piDvjS4cn2zddqreMaAgXXEALw_wcB


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## krusej23 (May 8, 2018)

That looks really good. Just glypho the grass left in the bed before mulching or get a sod cutter for it. You could also put black trash bags over spots or cardboard until it dies. If you glypho the grass, use a big piece of cardboard that you can move as you spray to put along the fence, edging, and grass plant to protect them from drift.


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## Hoosier (Jun 12, 2018)

Glad you guys think it turned out ok. The top curve of the bed is much further out than I wanted it to be, and is going to make filling it in with other plants a little difficult, since there won't be space along the whole bed for some things, and I prefer a more uniform look along the whole bed, but that's a challenge for a different day.

@drenglish I used a similar tool for the edge, made by Garden Weasel - definitely helped, though it wasn't quite sharp enough for some areas that were dried out. As for getting out there with a pair of scissors to trim the edge, it's certainly something I would do, though my wife would be out there taking pictures of me doing it to send to her friends - she already jokes with them about how crazy I am about the lawn lol. Hopefully I can clean it up in a couple weeks once/if the grass along the edge fills in a bit more.

Rather than glyphosate, I ended up using cut up garden bags under the mulch. Figured they would be thick enough to prevent the grass from growing up, and didn't have to worry about overspray. We'll see how this works.


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## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

Man, it looks pretty good to me. The hose idea for marking out the garden before digging is a good one. I've done that before and it works well.


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## LawnRat (Mar 22, 2019)

"Rather than glyphosate, I ended up using cut up garden bags under the mulch......"

You will curse yourself in a few years. Ask me how I know .

Looks good to me!


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