A DIY Garden Edging Idea That'll Make Use Of Your Broken Plant Pots

Creating clean lines between your garden beds and the larger areas of your lawn is a great way to make any outdoor space feel more professional, and helps prevent grass from spilling over into your flower beds. Some of the best lawn edging ideas that'll take your small backyard to the next level do not require expensive pavers or tools. If you have saving broken flower pots and planters — especially terracotta or concrete — for an unspecified future project, you have the start to a decorative and practical garden edge. Instead of pavers or bricks, you will use your pot shards and pieces as a simple, attractive, and effective barrier, keeping weeds and grass on one side, and mulch and bark on the other.

Just as you don't throw away broken bricks, instead turning them into a garden pathway, it's worth saving cracked and shattered pots. But if you don't have enough, ask around: Friends and neighbors likely have broken pot shards to add to your collection. Check online neighborhood and buy nothing groups, and don't hesitate to post a request. You'll be doing other people a favor. As you collect more of them, divide them up into different sizes, colors, and textures. Be careful: Broken pots can have sharp edges and points. Use gloves when handling the pieces and consider sanding edges before using them in your landscaping. Now it's just a matter of creating a clean edge trough and strategically placing your pot pieces.

Putting it all together is simple once you have enough pots for your space. You'll begin the same way you would with any edging: Using a spade, trowel, or edger, dig a clean vertical line along the edge of your lawn along your sidewalk or flowerbed. Dig down a few inches or more (depending on the size of the pieces you're using): Vertically against the grass, sloped towards the garden bed. You want to a deep enough niche to insert each pot piece securely, about half their length. With this style you'll want pieces of similar size. Place them in a line, like a jagged fence, or alternating with their curves facing in and out for a scalloped, wavy look from above.

Another, more organic option if you have enough broken pots is to place them upside down, with the sharp edges pointing down and curved sides or bases up. You will need to have pots that have not completely shattered to accomplish this bold, somewhat erratic edging look. Arrange the pots along the borders of your garden beds. The pots should have similar diameters or be placed in increasing or decreasing sizes, and bulbous pots work well here too.

The look of the warm terracotta pot pieces around your flower garden goes well with brightly colored flowering plants, like angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia), the fuss-free pink and purple flower that thrives in sunny gardens. But you can also collect mismatched pieces of glazed pottery or in a rainbow of colors to make a vibrant edge. You could even set partially broken pots on their sides to complement the edging. Fill these with potting soil, and let plants grow through the broken sides.