Gardening for Keeps

(Page 4 of 4)

October/November 2008
By Barbara Pleasant 
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Finishing Touches

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Framing permanent beds is always optional, but dressing up your garden’s front edge looks sharp and can add to its versatility. No need to spend time and money to build frames from lumber. High-visibility edges can be defined with logs, recycled cedar fence rails, pieces of firewood or rocks placed over strips of old carpeting. A friend laid a single run of concrete blocks down the side of his garden closest to the water faucet, filled the openings with good soil, and then helped his 5-year-old turn the edge into his own little garden. Pieces of terra-cotta chimney pipe or drainage tile can be set into the ground vertically, filled with soil, and used to grow mints that might otherwise grab way too much space.

If you maintain the outer edges of your garden with your lawn mower, a hard edging may end up complicating your life, but the opposite will happen if you edge beds with flowers and herbs. Fragrant annual sweet alyssum attracts beneficial insects and often reseeds itself, and dwarf curly parsley is always a dazzler in perimeter plantings. Dwarf French marigolds with dwarf blue ageratum make a colorful, low-maintenance edge combo for the warm summer months. If you prefer, keep a clean edge with a ribbon of grass clippings allowed to accumulate where they fall. When it comes to gardening for keeps, the simplest ideas are usually the best.

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