Paver edging in Flower Beds

[Tsmith]

I've grown tired of having to redo the cutouts on my flower beds 3-4 times a year mainly bc my most of my inner and outer borders are beds now so I've been thinking about adding pavers to the edging to hopefully reduce some of my maintenance around the yard. There will still be some but there would at least be less shoveling with the pavers.

Adding the pavers themselves seems easy enough but wondering what kind of base I need to put under them if I need to at all. My assumption is I would need to at least use sand for leveling but I'd like to hear what others have done and get some tips before proceeding.

I'm going to start with the back first then if I like it do the beds out front as well.

Here are a couple pics I've seen on net to give an idea what I'm thinking about doing.

Thanks

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[gijoe4500]

Your last picture looks like concrete curbing. It is unique, and awesome, but its not quite the same as pavers. I'd love to do that in my backyard, but i can't justify the cost right now.

[ken-n-nancy]

... I've been thinking about adding pavers to the edging to hopefully reduce some of my maintenance around the yard.

I'm a fan of this technique. We've done edges in granite blocks ("cobblestones") for around flower garden beds, as well as along the driveway and walkway. Although I don't think I have a prior photo which shows the edge from the lawn to the granite block, there are some that show the hardscape edging in this thread.

Adding the pavers themselves seems easy enough but wondering what kind of base I need to put under them if I need to at all.

After researching this significantly, we didn't use any base for the ones around the flower beds. They are just set directly on the (excavated) soil. The granite blocks along the driveway are on a couple inches of stone dust. The ones along the paver walkway are on the same base as the pavers.

We haven't had any trouble with the granite blocks shifting significantly due to freeze/thaw cycles, or anything else for that matter, in any of the areas. Our granite blocks around the flower beds are a little more substantial than a typical paver, but they're not huge.

I'm going to start with the back first then if I like it do the beds out front as well.

Excellent idea. That's what we did as well.

One tip I would mention is to set the paver at "soil level" so that you can mow by simply running the mower wheels directly on top of the border. This greatly facilitates easy mowing. The one "gotcha" is that this also means that the other mower wheel will ride the same path every time you mow, tending to wear the grass more in a specific spot. I try to vary where I place the mower wheel a little bit to lessen this effect.

One other thing I'll mention is lawn incursion into the flower beds. Our fine fescue in the back lawn doesn't make any incursions into the flower beds. However, the KBG in the front lawn is a different story. The KBG spreads into the gaps between granite blocks. Furthermore, rhizomes make their way through the gaps between granite blocks and will result in new grass sprouting up within the flower bed. We pluck the KBG out from the gaps between the granite blocks and from within the bed where the KBG has spread into the bed on a regular basis. I usually just pull a few out each time I mow the lawn, which keeps up with it. However, they're not exactly "maintenance free" in this regard.

[Tsmith]

Thanks Ken,
Ill look through your thread but this is great info

the plan is to set the pavers so I can just go over them with the wheels of the mower

grass growing through the cracks is a concern and one reason why I would consider some type of base...I picked up a few test pavers at lunch today to try out and see how I want o set them

Your last picture looks like concrete curbing. It is unique, and awesome, but its not quite the same as pavers. I'd love to do that in my backyard, but i can't justify the cost right now.

thanks, I didn't even notice and just grabbed a couple screenshots

my plan is to make this as easy and affordable as possibly so wont be using those

[ken-n-nancy]

grass growing through the cracks is a concern and one reason why I would consider some type of base

My experience is that any typical bases of sand, stone dust, polymeric sand, aren't going to stop the rhizomes from working their way in. I think you'd need to move to a base of concrete or asphalt to stop KBG.

That said, I've found it to be quite manageable to pluck the KBG incursions out of the granite border -- it just takes a few minutes each time the lawn is mowed -- it's definitely much faster than edging or even using a string trimmer.

[Tsmith]

grass growing through the cracks is a concern and one reason why I would consider some type of base

My experience is that anything typical bases of sand, stone dust, polymeric sand, aren't going to stop the rhizomes from working their way in. I think you'd need to move to a base of concrete or asphalt to stop KBG.

That said, I've found it to be quite manageable to pluck the KBG incursions out of the granite border -- it just takes a few minutes each time the lawn is mowed -- it's definitely much faster than edging or even using a string trimmer.

and that's not the way I want to go as I don't want anything that permanent

the pavers and specifically the size of them will determine how much of a base i go with...some of my cutouts ended up a little deeper than others so I would need to build them back up some

[Tsmith]

Decided on the Valestone Hardscapes Marseilles 7x7 pavers for the edge and will combine with the two others from this style on a small walkway through my gate

I went with the shorter paver to hopefully reduce gaps on the turns. These of course are almost twice as much as the ones I was originally looking at which just happened to be on sale at lowes but you like what you like.

I picked up 30 and did one turn just to see how they are and did use sand as I just felt they set better. I'm going to mess around with a couple areas to make sure this is what I want before diving in on bigger purchase.

Looking to order by the pallet from HD but for some reason the cost is more per paver plus the delivery charge which doesn't make sense. You would think the price per paver would be cheaper when buying by the pallet.


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[gijoe4500]

Any pictures of how the pavers look so far?

[Tsmith]

Ordered two pallets of pavers (480 total) from Home Depot which will be delivered on Thursday so that's what Ill be doing this weekend. For some reason the price per paver is more when ordering by the pallet which doesn't make any sense. There was a separate shipping charge added so it wasn't for that. I couldn't just like the cheaper ones could I?

Ill snap some pics once I get going again as I sat some of the ones I did previously a little lower than I'd like so I'm going to redo them. They did get and pass a good test though with the big storm that hit here Sunday night as I was worried they might move around especially on the turn since I have those sitting back a bit but doesn't look like they moved at all.

[Tsmith]

Guy shows up to delivery pavers and only has a manual lift cart and doesn't think we would be able to get up my driveway so I had to push.

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[Nixnix42]

Guy shows up to delivery pavers and only has a manual lift cart and doesn't think we would be able to get up my driveway so I had to push.

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Would you like to borrow my hernia belt ?:)


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[Tsmith]

Guy shows up to delivery pavers and only has a manual lift cart and doesn't think we would be able to get up my driveway so I had to push.

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Would you like to borrow my hernia belt ?:)


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I prob should have worn something. One pallet is gone and moved to the back, took 7 trips with the wheel barrow.

Not nearly as bad as the 6 tons of gravel for my shed base pad last year


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[Tsmith]

Almost done although still have to go back and fix some but figured I'd share some pics of the progress.

Disregard the back lawn as I killed the one side earlier this spring and will be killing the rest tomorrow.

[gijoe4500]

Looks awesome!

[Overfloater]

I can't see any of your pictures but I did basically what Ken was proposing.

Prior to the pavers I had an English border so I had already dug a trench therefore the pavers were at soil level after being installed.

Now when I mow, I ride the pavers with one side of the mower and it cuts perfectly level and the result is a mostly high and tight edge.

Occasionally I go through and clean it up with a vertical cut from the string trimmer.

It's pretty convenient and looks nice.

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[Tsmith]

I deleted the pics that I originally uploaded from the app and uploaded again from the site so hopefully they show up on both now.

Looks awesome!

Thanks...will end up around 440 pavers just around back lawn but I'm also going to try running a small walkway through gate as well.

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[desirous]

Tsmith, this looks awesome. I'd love to copy your design. Can you share some details? This does not look like 7x7 (not square). What sizes did you end up using? Did you put any base under the pavers?

[ken-n-nancy]

Almost done although still have to go back and fix some but figured I'd share some pics of the progress.

Those came out real nice! Well done! Hopefully it works out well for you!

Love the hosta, too! Did you get those online from the site Andy recommends, or did you purchase those locally as potted plants?

[Tsmith]

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback which is always nice to hear especially when doing something for the first time.

Here are the pavers I used which are 7x7 and a little more expensive than I was planning but are the ones I liked best out of the 4 or 5 I tried. I used paver sand not base just to level and tap into place.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Valestone-Hard ... /203185266


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[Tsmith]

Almost done although still have to go back and fix some but figured I'd share some pics of the progress.

Those came out real nice! Well done! Hopefully it works out well for you!

Love the hosta, too! Did you get those online from the site Andy recommends, or did you purchase those locally as potted plants?

I actually got those Hosta from local garden center but I did buy some online before that I have in another smaller bed on side of my house that gets almost no sun.


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