10 DIY Wood Garden Edging Plans You Can Make Today (with Pictures)
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Pete Ortiz - Last updated:
A crisp edge between lawn and garden adds sharpness and a complete look to tidy landscaping. You’ll have countless ways to add personal flair to your garden edge, from concrete pavers to repurposed glass ornaments, but wood is one of the surest places to start.
The organic grain and earthy brown tones of wood are natural complements to landscape greenery, and its raw neutrality blends perfectly with floral displays of any color. Get inspired for your backyard creation by checking out these 10 DIY wood garden edging plans you can make today.
The 10 DIY Wood Garden Edging Plans
1. Sleeper Garden Edge
Tools and Materials: | Circular saw, Drill, Square, Level, Oak sleepers, Stainless steel screws, Oak dowels (optional) |
Difficulty: | Intermediate |
Sleepers, or railroad ties, are some of the most common materials for wood garden edging. They’re long, sturdy, and the perfect thickness, so you’ll see them pop up in a variety of configurations.
In this tutorial, you get a written description and a detailed video of the steps to create a sleeper garden edge. Sleepers lie on one another like bricks, fixed in place with heavy-duty screws or rods. The most challenging aspect is the foundation build, which involves using a concrete pour to anchor the sleepers. Keep it level, and the result is a clean, professional-looking garden wall.
2. Simple Garden Bed Edging
Tools and Materials: | Miter saw, Drill, 4×4 wood pieces, 2×4 wood pieces, Wood decking, Screws, Pea gravel |
Difficulty: | Intermediate |
One of the more attractive wood edging plans is also one of the easiest to install. With 4×4 wood pieces as a base, this simple garden bed edging adds wood decking pieces to provide your garden with texture, symmetry, and class. You get a low-rising board-and-batten feature and an appealing overhang for a finished look.
3. Repurposed Pallet Edging
Tools and Materials: | Pallet, Saw, Strimmer or metal garden wire, Stapler |
Difficulty: | Easy |
There’s nothing to it with this super easy pallet edging plan. You only need to draw triangles at the ends of cut-down pallet slats to form flat, wooden stakes. Binding them together with wire, you create an even run of tight posts making a flat garden wall. You then pound them into the ground with a mallet, and that’s all there is to it! It’s a loose, imperfect approach to garden edging that’s full of fun and character.
4. Angled Sleeper Garden Edge
Tools and Materials: | Circular saw, Drill, Chisels, Square, Railroad sleepers, Screws, Concrete |
Difficulty: | Advanced |
An overlapping joint in this sleeper garden edge demands finesse, and thus the difficulty gets bumped up a notch. The results, though, are well worth it, and the video does a thorough walkthrough of how to get a proper look. A bit of edgework and sanding finishes off the overall cleanliness of the dynamic lines and weighty materials.
5. Railroad Tie Garden Edging
Tools and Materials: | Saw, Drill, Level, Sleepers, Landscaping screws, Concrete, Sandpaper |
Difficulty: | Intermediate |
Sleepers show up again in this railroad tie garden edging plan. The instructions are a little vague, but there are some crucial tips in selecting materials. Plus, you get an added look at creating steps with your edging, which can make a difference when you want to enhance a walkway.
6. Log Garden Border
Tools and Materials: | Saw, Drill, Thin logs (natural tree branches), Wood stakes, Screws, Metal wire, Eye screws, Pea gravel |
Difficulty: | Easy |
The log garden border in this plan is attractive and uncomplicated. The trick is finding suitable wood pieces that are sufficiently long, wide, and straight to make a uniform wall. If you have many trees at your disposal, it may only take a chainsaw, some wooden stakes, and a drill to complete this live garden edge.
See Also: 10 DIY Cedar Raised Garden Beds Plans You Can Make Today (with Pictures)
7. Pallet Wood Garden Edging
Tools and Materials: | Saw, Drill, Knife, Pallets, Soda bottles, Metal rods |
Difficulty: | Intermediate |
The pallet wood garden edge in this plan is an upcycling opportunity for an eco-friendly DIYer. Reclaimed pallets and reimagined plastic bottles create a quaint yet stout border to hold your garden bed back. The materials are cheap, and it only takes a few minutes and some imagination to put together this rural-feeling feature.
8. Branch Garden Edge
Tools and Materials: | Saw, Drill, Branches, 2x4s, String |
Difficulty: | Intermediate |
When windy fall weather supplies you with downed limbs scattered across the yard, make lemonade out of lemons by whipping up this branch-lined garden edge. It’s easy to make any height you want, and the large, equidistant supporting posts add neatness and magic to this whimsical design.
9. Pallet Garden Fence
Tools and Materials: | Saw, Pallets, Paint |
Even if you’re sick of reclaimed pallet ideas for garden edges, you have to acknowledge the clever approach in this repurposed pallet fence tutorial. Instead of ripping apart planks and cutting them down, these plans take advantage of the original pallet construction to make the setup quick and easy. Finish it off with a coat of paint, and you’ve got a prim, proper, and plumb border for your beds.
See Also: 18 DIY Garden Fence Plans You Can Make Today (with Pictures)
10. Log Roll Garden Edging
Tools and Materials: | Drill, Wood screws, Level, Mallet, Log roll |
Difficulty: | Easy |
The combination of simplicity and appeal makes a log roll border one of the best wooden garden edge plans. Fitting it to unique garden shapes is easy due to the flexible prefab roll of finished half-logs. Pin it in place with some tamped-down stakes and screws to complete nearly any garden border in an hour or less.
See Also: 6 DIY Garden Arbor Plans You Can Make Today (with Pictures)
Final Thoughts
Every garden needs an edge, and wood is one of the most convenient and fun materials to use. You can feel proud of any creation, and when you apply your creativity to repurpose unused pieces, it becomes all the more satisfying to bring your landscaping to life with an elegant border. Try out any of these DIY wood garden edges to give your garden the defining feature it’s been missing.
See Also: 16 DIY Fairy Garden Plans You Can Make Today (with Pictures)
Featured Image Credit: Dean Clarke, Shutterstock