What is an edging tool used for?
For perfect borders!
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To obtain flowerbeds, borders or paths with neat, well-defined edges, only one tool is essential: the manual edging tool or manual edge trimmer. Quiet and eco-friendly, the edging tool is nonetheless remarkably effective. In no time, your edges will be straightened without fatigue or backache. They come with classic half-moon heads, rectangular heads for tight spots or even round heads to redraw long borders simply by walking along with the tool. In short, whatever style your garden, you’ll need an edging tool!
Neat flowerbed thanks to using an edging tool (© Gwenaëlle David)
What is an edging tool?
Short grass meadow is a grass like any other and its roots trace tirelessly through soil. Result: borders of beds and flowerbeds, once neat, now look a mess as tufts of herb have pushed in everywhere. Fortunately, a hand gardening tool is perfect for restoring edges: the edger or border cutter.
They come in three main forms:
- Half-moon: the half-moon edger is most commonly used. It is a tool fitted with a handle generally in wood (ash) and a half-moon head in steel. This half-moon head is bevelled and sharpened along the semicircle and is fitted with a rim on top to place foot. Some half-moon edgers have a head in polished stainless steel to be used in very sticky soils, such as this mirror-polished steel edger by Spear & Jackson.
- The rectangular edger: this tool also comprises a handle (ash wood or composite materials) but has a rectangular head sharpened on the underside and fitted with a rim to place foot. Its rectangular head allows precise work in narrow spots. The de Pypere rectangular edger is a good example.
- The cutting-wheel edger: this is the kind used for long runs of edging. Handle is ash and head is round and fully sharp. Simply push it slightly into soil and walk along the edge line.
- There are also motorised edgers: a cutting head is fixed to a brushcutter body with a petrol or electric motor. A wheel is added to guide the machine. This type of tool, heavy, noisy and expensive, should be reserved for very large gardens or parks.
please note : people often call “coupe-bordure” the motorised tool similar to a string trimmer (rotofil). It is very useful to cut grass where mower would struggle to pass: very narrow path, edging, very uneven area…
Half-moon very handy, and petrol-powered edger used by local authorities (© Gwenaëlle David)
Read also
What is a scraper used for?How to use an edging tool?
In case of classic edging tools with half-moon or rectangular head :
- Hold your edging tool (half-moon or rectangular head) upright in front of you with blade positioned on edge to be (re)cut ;
- Place your right foot (or left if you are left-handed or… it doesn’t matter after all!) on blade’s edge ;
- Press down on blade with your foot to slice cleanly through short grass meadow ;
- You can slightly lift turf with a small levering motion of the half-moon to detach soil and weeds ;
- Then remove excess soil and grass.
Edging tools with round, cutting head :
- Position round-headed tool in front of you ;
- Push it slightly into soil by pressing on handle ;
- Push tool forward to slice lawn following curve of edge ;
- Remove clods of soil and grass.
In both cases, to obtain neat straight edges you can use a string line or a guide blade made from a single straight plank.
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