Prep work

Jobs prepped for us, or on final grade, get priority service and cost less. 

You can do the prep yourself. See the photo gallery below for examples that suit your situation.

For reshaping or prepping existing bed areas to be curbed:

1. Mark your line by laying out your garden hose.  If you want, paint the line with upside down paint marker. Be sure its not too wiggly!
2. Pull out plastic/ remove existing edging
3. You can use a half moon edger ( be sure it has been sharpened- for some reason, they are sold without a sharp edge making them almost useless until they are sharpened. ) Cut a vertical cut about 1-2″ into the lawn from where the curb will actually be. ( our machine needs a little extra space ) do this by keeping your foot on the edger and pushing with your foot, then pulling back up with your hand- you can go very quickly this way.  Then get under the turf only about 1 to 1.5″ deep  with the edger. It helps if a second person pulls up ( watch those fingers!) while you keep cutting horizontally under the sod thatch. This method works well for expanding existing edges after the plastic is pulled out.
4. If you are preparing bigger beds, renting a sod cutter is a good way to go. Home Depot has them, and most rental companies do too.  The Billy Goat is a very easy to use sod cutter for smaller areas.  The Klassen or Bluebird are better for big areas on open ground but are harder to steer.  It helps if the lawn is thoroughly watered the day before sod cutting- as those blades cut damp roots and soil better than hard grisly dry roots!
5. For new beds you can install landscape fabric up to about 4″ from your prepped line, leaving the soil exposed in those 4″ ( we want the curb ideally to lay half on the soil, half on the fabric.) Hold the fabric done with nails or the tacks sold for that purpose.
6. You can install the rock or mulch in the bed if there is room. Just keep it back from the lawn edge about 18″ and piled up a bit so we have room to maneuver the extruder.
7. Call us to install the curb (we try to do prepped jobs within week of getting the order) 
8. A day or two after the curb is installed, you can pull the rocks up against the back side of the curb, and the bed is done! For new beds you can install landscape fabric up to about 4″ from your prepped line, leaving the soil exposed in those 4″ ( we want the curb ideally to lay half on the soil, half on the fabric.) Hold the fabric down with nails or the tacks sold for that purpose. You can install the rock or mulch in the bed. Just keep it back from the lawn edge about 18″ and piled up a bit so we have room to maneuver the extruder. A day or two after the curb is installed, you can pull the rocks up against the back side of the curb, and the bed is done!
   

9. Below is a description of  the
   Kill and Cover prep method used for large new bed areas:  

   

   “Kill and Cover”- a shortcut for creating new beds in an area with lawn 

   This is a method used for creating larger new beds in an existing lawn.  It saves all the tedious work and EXPENSE of cutting out big areas of sod and hauling all that material away only to fill up the space with rock or mulch anyway.  The old turf left underneath won’t hurt anything. 

 1) Use your hose to lay out the line.

2) Cut just one swath with the half moon edger or with a sod cutter.

3)  Spray all the grass behind the curb with “Roundup” to kill the lawn.  Click HERE for a link on the pragmatic use of roundup in your yard    or HERE for an article on theoretical and potential dangers of roundup and click HERE for alternatives to roundup

4) Plant your shrubs  

5) Install fabric

6) Install rocks/ mulch, keeping it back 18″ from the prepped line

7) Call us to come by and install the curb.  

8) Finish as needed

Gallery: