From the Sperry Garden – October, 2007

29 years ago this weekend we moved into our home. One of my first landscaping tasks was to lay out beds in front of the house, and this old edging was put in place. It’s been there ever since. I’ve knelt over it scores of times to tape television programs and to photograph plants for our calendars and magazine stories. This is pretty much its last hurrah as the old edging has run out of steam. Still, 29 years is a lot of good service. It’s kept our Asian jasmine and St. Augustine turf apart. It’s kept the bark mulch in place, and it’s delineated where the shrubs could and could not grow.

Now, the tasks are handed off to another generation. Another round of green, baked-enamel edging has now taken its place. I still think it’s the best way of drawing lines into the landscape.

One tip to carry with you from all of this: hammer your edging almost completely into the ground. When it’s all said and done, you want to see the line and not the edging.