You know those days when you think about getting a haircut, but you’re not sure if you really need one?  You decide to bite the bullet.  Your layers might be a bit grown out, or your bangs are getting too long, so you get a haircut and walk out looking like a million bucks.

Just a trim can go a long, long way.  People might not notice what you had done (“you look different – did you do something different with your hair?”) but people notice that you did something and you look awesome.

Yep, it’s a garden metaphor.  Edging a garden is just like getting a trim: you can get by without one, but if you just go out and do it, you end up looking like a new woman!

Here’s a couple before shots of our front yard garden:

Try to ignore the stuff I have laying on the ground…

From far away, it looks okay.  But get up a little closer and it’s clear that the lawn has encroached on the garden’s territory.

Bring in the weapon!  You can get actual tools for putting on an edge – back in the old day when I worked as a gardener, we called them half mooners.  They have a slightly shorter handle on them and a crescent shape bottom with a folded over metal edge at the top to stop you from digging too deep along the edge.  Or, use a flatter shovel.

At this point, I think my neighbours were wondering why I was taking pictures of a shovel.  I guess I’m the creepy neighbour now.

Edging is easy.  You can’t mess up because you can always fix what you just did.  First, line up your shovel with where the edge should be.

Give it a good stomp, then lift up the hunk of dirt.

Then, throw and turn the dirt over.  This is the most fun part. ;)  I like throwing dirt as an adult.

So you keep doing that all the way along the edge of the garden.  The smaller the garden, the faster this is, of course.  At the end, you’ll end up with big dirt blocks if the soil wasn’t too dry.

Just smash them up and pick out any weeds or grass that was mixed in.

Ready for the after shots?

Our lawn isn’t exactly lush, but the nicer your grass, the nicer the edge looks!

Go on now, be edgy.