English garden edging - 8 Edgings for English gardens

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English gardens are loved for their simplistic elegance and celebration of both formal and informal landscaping.

With multiple influences throughout the ages, English gardens are a combination of delicacies and skilled craftsmanship. With centuries of gardening tradition English gardens celebrate traditional horticulture and landscaping mastery.

One of the most important elements of English garden landscaping is edging borders. These provide clarity, definition and structure to a gardens design creating a visual consistency.

​In this article I list and describe 8 edgings perfect for traditional English gardens. 

​Bricks

In England bricks have been a common and versatile building material for hundreds of years.

Fired from the natural clay soils of the country's geology, bricks come in a range of attractive colours and styles. Bricks provide the opportunity for retaining walls and raised features to seamlessly match garden landscaping.

​Laid on edge, bricks can create beautiful edging to lawns, pathways and flower borders. 
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​Terracotta tiles

​Terracotta has long been associated with the gardens of southern Europe and the Med. However these tiles are also commonly found within English courtyards and cottage gardens.

Their warm colours and elegant style make them a great contender for garden edging. Tiles can be used to clad concrete edgings or laid flush with lawns, pathways and beds. 
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​Sandstone paving

Sandstone has always been a traditional paving stone laid within English estates and country homes.

This was due to the popularity of a type of sandstone quarried within the north of England, ‘York stone’. Today cheaper sandstones imported from Asia have led to less use of traditional York stone.

​However sandstone has still kept its popularity with sandstones making exceptionally good edgings for English gardens. 

​Path edging kerbs

​Path edging kerbs are linear, pre-cast concrete edgings designed to retain pathway gravels and paving. Generally measuring a metre long by 150mm wide these kerbs now come in a wide range of products.

​Some of these include standard PC edgings as well as terracotta and ‘rope top’ path edgings. Such edgings work extremely well along English garden paths and flower beds. 

​Dry stone walling

​Dry stone walling is a traditional building technique commonly used in the west and north of England. These regions have a naturally rocky geology with plenty of accessibility to local fragmented rocks and stones.

Consequently many skilled masons utilised these rocks for rural building construction. Therefore dry stone walling can be both an effective and traditional way to install edgings to English gardens. 
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​Natural stone paving

Over the years English gardens have been exposed to many different influences. From the Norman invasions to the explorations of empire, English gardens exhibit a multitude of different plants and materials.

This means there is actually much choice when deciding what materials to use for English gardens. A great way to create edging for such gardens is by using natural stone.

​From slates and sandstones to granites and limestone, natural paving is excellent for cutting down and laying garden edging. 
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​Rendered block

The English garden style has always celebrated the traditional but also the modern. Very often English gardens combine such design styles giving testament to their adaptability.

It is very common for English gardens to juxtapose traditional dry stone walls with more modern rendered walls. These exciting contrasts and contradictions can also be intricate into edgings.

​Rendered concrete block is an excellent way to form low wall and raised border edging within English gardens. 
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​Granite setts

Granite setts have long been used within old, rural, towns of England and within the centre of large cities.

London itself was originally paved with this attractive but extremely durable paving material. Consequently granite setts have also appeared within the landscaping of public parks and country estates.

​This makes them very suitable to be laid as garden edging within English gardens. Granite setts make excellent retaining edgings to gravel surfaces, lawns and flower borders. 
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​Thank you for reading our article on the best edgings for traditional English gardens. Below I will link to some other articles you may find relevant. 

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