Eliminating unwanted grass from along sidewalks and driveways
Are things not looking so neat around your house, especially when it comes to your sidewalk and driveway? Have creeping grasses started to take over? If so I have a solution to your dilemma.
My solution is an Edger. With a half-moon shaped edger (see illustration), available at garden centers and hardware stores everywhere, you will easily be able to keep edges around your cement walks and asphalt driveways looking tidy.
Step One ..Position you edger 2 to 3 inches out from the edge of your sidewalk or driveway; aiming the edger’s blade straight down. With your foot on the edger’s top edge, step down onto the device, pushing it into the ground.
Step Two ..Pull the edger’s handle toward you, popping up the first piece of sod.
Step Three ..Move along one half bite (one half the length of the edge’s blade), and repeat steps 1 and 2. I am right handed and like working in a right to left direction.
After cutting and popping up 8 to 10 feet of sod, take the edger and if needed, cut the long strip into many shorter pieces. Go back and remove the grass. Sometimes you will have to slide a straight spade under long grasses that have migrated far out onto walks or driveways to loosen the roots even more, after cutting with the edger. Next knock off the dirt from the grasses roots on the sidewalk or drive. Throw away the unwanted grasses, then sweep the dirt back into the space just edged to level the soil. If you have a lot of excess dirt sweep it into poles, take a snow shovel to scoop it up and use the excess dirt to fill in low spots on your property.
Edging can be done anytime during the growing season. I do it once or twice a year. If done in June and mid August things will stay neat.
The edging device also works nice keeping grass from migrating into flower beds. Edged flower beds is a classic / old fashioned thing to do. The look is quite crisp / formal, but labor intensive, especially if you have large lengths of beds and borders that need edging.
Companion Post…
Applying fertilizer / Weed Control on the lawn 4-27-2011,
Why Rake Leaves grind them with a mower 11-15-2010
Foundation Plants, Laying out Foundation Plants in Front of your Home 9-28-2013,
Planting Foundation Plants across the Front of your Home 10-21-2013,
Distance Foundation Plants from your House when Planting 5-3-2012,
Fred Gonsowski Garden Home 
I did this for the first time this summer all the way down my LONG sidewalk with an electric edger. I think I gained a foot of width! I have one of these things and think I’ll use it for upkeep instead of dragging out the long cord.
I agree edged borders are the most beautiful, especially when there’s a deep recess before the bed. Some of my neighbors have this and I love the look. Mine are edged in their original brick zig zag pattern which must have been very labor intensive to install, but a total pain to mow now that the ground has shifted. i think the grass is always greener… CTD
Hi Teresa, I’ve just finished today, edging my driveway. It took me two days to do. The driveway is 110 feet long, two lanes deep and had a five car parking shelf. Before doing that I did my mother’s place which inspired this post. Mostly/ALL the topics I cover on this blog, I have done at one time or another. As for the flower beds, even thought I write about it, I have them edged in black plastic edging, BUT the plants all spill over the edges so it is not seen. Glad you liked the post;-}
Hello Fred, Thanks for your blog. My lawn was over-growing my sidewalk. I have a corner lot, so there is just a lot of sidewalk to edge so bought a power edger to edge it. But now I have mountains of turf (zoysia) that I cut off the sidewalk. Can I compost it? Will the zoysiagrass actually be killed by composting or will it spring up in my garden beds when I add the compost. Nothing seems to kill zoysia.
Ooops! Nevermind; I just read your blog about Zoysia and saw that you said not to compost it. So, I need to put it out for the trash men? BTW I did not put the Zoysia in, it was here when we bought the house.
Hi there Linda, throw the zoysia grass away.
Pingback: Garden Ideas Along Side Of House | Your Home Garden Ideas Post