Is it worth adding edging to a weekly lawn service?

For most Virginia yards with long runs of sidewalk, driveway or curb, adding edging to a weekly service is worth it: the crew is already there with the tools, and a clean line is far easier to keep than to win back. It is least worth it on a bunch-type tall fescue lawn with short edges, where a trimmer pass at each mowing keeps things tidy and you can recut the hard edge yourself when it starts to blur.

Your grass decides most of it

The single biggest factor is how fast your grass creeps over concrete.

• Bermudagrass. Virginia Tech rates bermudagrass as high maintenance during the growing season, primarily because of mowing and edging requirements.^[1] Its fast-growing rhizomes and stolons carry it into plant beds and gardens,^[1] and across sidewalk edges the same way.
• Kentucky bluegrass. It has aggressive creeping potential from rhizomes,^[1] so it also benefits from regular edging.
• Zoysiagrass. Dense and slow to spread, with less stem encroachment into landscape and garden beds than bermudagrass.^[1]
• Tall fescue. One of the best-adapted lawn grasses across Virginia,^[1] it is a bunch-type grass, and Virginia Tech still recommends managing it as a non-creeping grass.^[1] Its edges hold their shape longest.

If you have bermudagrass or bluegrass and more than a short front walk, edging at each visit usually pays for itself in the time it saves you. If you have tall fescue, consider paying for a crisp first edge, then a trim at each visit, with the blade edger used only when needed.

Match the add-on to the season

Grass in Virginia does not grow evenly through the year, and neither should your edging bill. Warm-season grasses such as bermudagrass and zoysia go dormant and lose their green color for 4 to 5 months from late fall to early spring,^[1] so there is little to edge in winter. Henrico County's Extension office notes that tall fescue looks good in spring, early summer and fall but can go dormant in the heat of summer unless it is watered.^[2]

Weekly service itself is the right rhythm for most lawns. The Henrico office pairs weekly mowing for a regular-maintenance cool-season lawn^[2] with removing no more than one third of the grass blade at each mowing.^[2] Edging on that same visit keeps the line from getting away from you.

The case for doing it yourself

Edging is not hard, and if you already own a string trimmer it costs little more than line and a few minutes. The catch is safety and time. Husqvarna's edger manual warns that stones and debris thrown up by an edger can cause blindness or other serious injury,^[3] and calls for keeping children, animals and helpers outside a 15-metre (50-foot) zone^[3] while it runs. On a corner lot along a busy sidewalk, that is easier for a crew that does it every day. For the technique, see how to edge a lawn along a sidewalk.

What to ask before you add it

• What does "edging" mean to you? A string-trimmer pass along every hard surface and a blade-edger cut are different jobs at different prices.
• What is the weekly price with and without it? The difference is what the add-on really costs.
• Is there a charge for the first cut? An overgrown edge takes much longer the first time.
• Does it pause in winter? For bermudagrass and zoysia, it should.
• Where do the clippings go? Prince William County lists grass clippings and leaf litter among the potential sources of illicit discharges to the storm drain system.^[4] The crew should blow clippings back onto the lawn.
• Does the add-on include spraying? In Virginia, anyone who uses pesticides on someone else's property for pay must work for a company with a Pesticide Business License.^[5] VDACS does not issue an active certificate to a for-hire applicator unless the applicator holds, or works for someone who holds, a valid Pesticide Business License.^[6]

Try it for a month. If the edges look the same with and without the add-on, drop it. For what drives the price, see how much lawn edging costs in Virginia.

Stop and call a pro if

• The edge has vanished under a mat of runners along long stretches of concrete.
• Bermudagrass is moving through the sidewalk cracks and into beds, and you want a herbicide program rather than more cutting.
• The sidewalk slabs have heaved or broken, which needs concrete repair before neat edging is possible.

Browse the lawn and landscaping answers, compare lawn mowing services and edging and trimming services, or look up lawn and landscaping businesses around Blacksburg. To get it priced, describe the job once and local businesses quote it.