Keeping lawn out of garden beds

Question

I have buffalo grass for lawn and garden beds around the house. The grass wants to spread into my garden bed. I have a border of concrete curves that looks like this:

But the border is fairly overgrown.

What's the best way to keep lawn out of gardens?

Is there a grass that is recommended? Perhaps a non-invasive variety.

Or should I just maintain the border better?

Answer 1

Having that concrete border actually makes this a much easier task than many of us (I have no separator, so it requires constant work)

Two simple steps:

• Regularly through the growing season, use an edging tool to go around the grass edge of the concrete, cutting vertically through anything trying to grow beyond that demarcation line.
• Where seeds have landed in your beds and are growing, regular turning of the soil in the beds, as you would do anyway for weeding purposes, will be sufficient

You shouldn't need anything more serious than that.

Answer 2

If you can get your hands on some cedar sawdust, cedar chips, or cedar bark mulch, that will suppress grass quite well.

I'd put a trench along the grass side of your concrete barrier, and fill it with cedar sawdust.

Answer 3

If you're ok for some digging, dig a narrow trench along your concrete strip (grass side) with a mattock. Then install the one foot wide root barrier plastic that comes in rolls. Once this bit of hard work is done you will never have strong grass invade the garden beds.