by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The, what I call, trench edge was a standard feature around flower and shrub beds and borders in municipal formal gardens, parks and also in the formal gardens at general homes.
In the former two cases it has been largely done away with due to, it is claimed, labor time and thus labor costs but this has been to the detriment of the aesthetics of the gardens and parks.
An “unmade”, that is to say an unplanted, bed can be, theoretically, have a trench edge cut by using a machine but the already planted up bed requires manual edging by means of edging knife and spade.
With a trench edge even a bend left fallow for a season, for instance, as long as it is kept free of weeds and raked, looks attractive and not like just a bare part of ground (in a lawn).
Creating this edge “by hand” is somewhat a laborious job but it is, nevertheless, worth is for sure. The time that is takes, obviously, depends on the size of the bed.
© 2019
