Landscaping
Concrete curbing & river rock beds
Poured concrete curbing that bends with the bed, river rock laid inside it, and new edging that keeps the lawn out of the beds for good.
Chapter 01
Why garden beds creep into the lawn
A bed without a hard edge loses its line by the second summer. Grass runs into the rock, weeds follow it, and loose edging heaves out of the ground and leaves a gap for both. The bed that looked sharp the day it went in turns into a weekly chore on yards across the Yakima Valley.
Nikki Cook described exactly that in her review: she wanted her backyard gutted because every year it was too much for her to take care of. The answer there was fewer things to maintain, not more. Her garden beds were cleared out around the edge of the yard, river rock went in, and new edging went down to hold it.
Poured concrete curbing between a fresh lawn and a grey river rock bed
How the curb is poured to follow the bed
Concrete landscape curbing is not stacked or set in pieces. A curbing machine extrudes it, a continuous ribbon of concrete that the crew guides along a line they have laid out. That is why a poured curb can swing in a long curve around a bed or a tree, and why it looks like part of the landscape instead of a border bolted on.
Once the curb is set, the bed inside it gets river rock. Sebastian's crew has done this on yards around Zillah with the lawn on one side of the curb and grey rock on the other, as in the photo above, and along long runs of bed with the valley hills behind them.
Chapter 03
Living with a curbed bed
The payoff comes at mowing time. The mower wheel rides the top of the curb, so the lawn is cut right to the edge against a hard line. The rock stays inside the bed and the grass stays out of it.
Because the bed is already open and graded, the same visit can take other details. Path lights can go along a walk, and drip lines can be run to planters, which are part of the irrigation work First Choice does. Tell Sebastian what you want the yard to look like at (509) 699-3071 and he will talk you through the layout.
“They cleared out my garden beds around the edge on the yard and laid river rock and new edging.” Nikki Cook, Google review, five stars.