What are the different types of lawn edgers?
Manual lawn edgers are available with smooth curved or serrated blade edges of differing sizes, available with wooden or hollow metal shafts along with either a T or D shaped handle grips.
What makes a lawn edger perform?
The biggest two factors affecting the performance of a lawn edger is the weight being applied and the sharpness of the blade. A heavier weight gradually applied to a sharper blade makes it easier for the blade to smoothly sink into the ground, rather than having to repeatedly stomp on the blade which could cause foot pains over time.
Environmental factors include moistness and any debris such as stones or rocks embedded in the soil. You can water the area you are digging first to soften the soil but pulling out long strips of offcuts could disintegrate or solidify leading to a slower clean-up process.
Choosing the best lawn edger
Choosing the best lawn edger isn’t hard, look for a tool made with the right materials, the correct blade size with a comfortable grip at the right height.
Materials
The most important factor to look for are tough replaceable components, a stainless-steel coated blade coupled with a strong sturdy wooden handle makes the best type of lawn edger. Simply cleaning the lawn edger after every use should significantly prolong the lifespan of the blade and other components by preventing rust. A lightweight aluminium hollow shaft is more prone to snapping when placed under pressure, especially when the lawn edger is tightly compacted in the ground.
These types of garden tools have a huge amount of weight and stress placed on them over the lifetime of their use, buy a cheap lightweight version of a heavy duty tool means you’ll have to replace it very quickly.
Blade width
A wider blade will dig a wider hole meaning you can edge an entire border faster with less cuts, this makes them ideal for the edges of long straight lawns. However, because the blades dig deeper you will have to exert more pressure to reach the maximum depth.
A narrower blade is more suitable for shallower and smaller detailed work around awkwardly shaped objects in the lawn such as garden ornaments and steppingstones.
Height
A tall lawn edger allows more pressure and leverage to be applied with less effort.
Grip
Although the shape of the handle is down to personal choice try to choose one with a comfortable padded grip as it will be used repeatedly over a long period of time.
Replacements
A lawn edger with a replaceable head, handle and shaft means you can easily fix a broken part after a mishap. During operation the lawn edger is placed under a large amount of stress, if the blade hits a solid object underground it can potentially bend or bread.
Accessories
Finally invest in an accompanying set of padded gardening gloves to avoid blisters, robust gardening shoes will alleviate pains when pressing down repeatedly.
What is a lawn edger made of?
The semi-circular head is typically made of steel and coated in carbon or epoxy, the coating will protect the steel from scratches which result in rusting thereby prolonging the life of the tool. The shaft and handle might be wooden, tubular steel, lightweight aluminium, or a composite plastic material.
Ensure that the blade and shaft are made of thick robust material, these tools have a lot of weight placed on them repeatedly, avoid cheaper versions with poor build quality which are more susceptible to breaking.
Lawn edger size
What size lawn edger do I need?
Using a lawn edger with a wider blade results in being able to dig wider holes with a single cut, thereby speeding up the process of cutting long borders. Because wider blades are also longer and therefore dig deeper expect the need to exert more effort with every cut.
A lawn edger with a longer handle means it becomes a lot easier to rock the handle from side to side during operation.
Before purchasing a lawn edger try visiting your local garden centre and testing a few models out to discover which one feels most comfortable for your height.
What are the standard garden lawn edger lengths?
The typical height of a garden lawn edger is about 32 inches or 0.8 metres tall.
Where can I find a small lawn edger?
Although small lawn edgers are not commercially available it is possible to make your own by modifying a normal wooden lawn edger. Remove the blade from the wooden shaft, saw the wooden shaft to the desired height then replace the blade. This can be useful for those shorter or younger gardeners wishing to create the perfect edges to the lawns.
Where can I buy an expandable or telescopic garden lawn edger?
We have searched suppliers, but it appears these do not exist on the market at present. We would not recommend using one as the weight and pressure being exerted onto the shaft repeatedly could cause excess stress and strain on the telescopic joints causing them to break.
Can I buy an interchangeable lawn edger tool?
Interchangeable tools do exist from manufacturers like Wolf Garten and they can be useful when storage space is limited, it might work out cheaper when buying multiple tools as you are only purchasing the set of heads that you actually need along with a single handle.
When performing a task which constantly involves swapping tools over then remember this involves having to repeatedly stop and change the heads over, this might take longer than simply grabbing an existing tool.
Interchangeable heads and handles do make more financial sense when it comes to replacements, if the head is damaged you can just buy a new one without having to replace a perfectly good handle.
Interchangeable head system are impractical if you are sharing tasks with other gardeners as you’ll end up taking it in turns to use the handle.
Where to get a lawn edger?
This is a common tool so should be available to purchase by supporting your local garden centre, hardware store or alternatively by ordering online. If you only plan to use a lawn edger once a year and don’t have any storage space available you could potentially hire one, although due to the low cost there wouldn’t be a great price advantage in renting.
