How to keep grass out of flower beds
Switching to a drop spreader prevents grass seeds from flying into adjacent beds during planting. However, established grass will still run into new soil and root up through bark nuggets. To stop this constant spreading, you have to dig a low trench or install landscape edging, especially since advice on using landscape fabric remains conflicting.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Switching from a rotary spreader to a drop spreader to keep seeds contained
- 2Using a battery-powered hand spreader with an edge guard to block seeds around garden edges
- 3Using a string trimmer regularly to maintain a natural edge
- 4Installing an impermeable root barrier between the turf and the garden bed
- 5Building a border with thinstack stone
- 6Installing steel landscape edging
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I want the grass to not grow in this area and have read conflicting things on using landscaping fabric.”source ↗
“I fear if I cover the whole bed with about 2” of new dirt and then cover everything remaining (about 3”) with bark nuggets then the grass will want to root over and grow up through the bark nuggets.”source ↗
“I had read that digging down this low really helps prevent grass from spreading like normal but would you recommend putting landscaping edging in to help the grass from running or what can I do to help that not happen?”source ↗
“Will adding good soil back in allow the grass to start running into it?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Why do mushrooms keep coming back in my lawn and killing the grass?
- 7How to stop dogs from ruining yard paths
- 9How to stop weeds in a rock garden
- 4How to naturally deter bugs without harming kids
- 7How to stop birds from eating new grass seed when overseeding
- 3How to kill weeds in flowerbeds without killing plants