How beautiful was the weather today? I absolutely love Autumn.
It’s sunny enough to put a smile on everyone’s face, but crisp and cold enough to crack out the winter wardrobe – and as someone with a huge collection of scarves and hats, I’ve been excited for this moment. So today we felt it was a day to get outdoors.
Joe is planning on getting some decking in the garden before Winter really hits but for now, the new border that he put in during August needed a bit of tarting up.
We were kindly offered an opportunity to see what we thought of EcoBorders by The Plastic People. So that’s what we did today.
One problem we’ve found since adding the new border 2 months ago is that it’s a little more difficult to mow the edges of grass that sit next to it. We have a large lawn and as you’ll see from the pictures below, Autumn is a busy time for us in the garden because we are absolutely surrounded by humongous trees – so we’re never short of leaves to pick up! With that in mind, we need any adjustments to make sure that gardening is as easy and low maintenance as possible.
What drew me to EcoBorders over a standard wooden edge (those little ones that look like miniature fences I think are cute) is that it gives enough of a gap to allow you to mow all the way to the edge of your garden.
So let’s take a look at what we did today. Here is where we left off last time in my previous post. You get a sneaky view of the ferret mansion Joe is building at the back of the garden. And sadly, the Holly bush which we loved so much has started to wither and die which I’m gutted about.
As you can see, it wasn’t a straight line that we’re working to, so the fact that EcoBorders are made from recycled rubber means not only is it durable and great for outdoors, but it is flexible enough to bend – and though we thought it might, there was no feathering, kinks or breakages whatsoever which is great. It feels like the rubber floors you so often see at a children’s playground, and with a kiddie on the way soon, I think it’s a good choice for our garden, rather than sharper wooden panels.
The pieces were really easy to place. Positioning them starting at one end, we followed the line of our border. They came in 4-foot pieces, and for each piece there were 4 holes, for the accompanying pegs to be hammered into the ground to secure them. And that is really all there is to it!
At the very end of each piece were 2 holes and 2 further pegs, so that each piece could be adjoined. It kind of reminded me of flat pack furniture – in a good way!
Although these are available in other colours such as brown, red and green, I actually really like the grey colour which we picked. We’re hoping to match it on the other side of the garden when we come around to adding a flagged area so I think this will work nicely.
We completed the length of the garden in about 20 minutes which is pretty quick considering it’s about 30 – 40 feet worth of border that needed doing.
In fact, the only bit that took a little longer was ensuring that the EcoBorders were really secure. The pegs are long enough, but as we were using them on a barked area and not straight soil, they did need a tad more ‘packing’ into place. If I were to give advice to others installing these, I’d say to raise your soil behind the border first and dig slightly where the border will go. This will give an ‘alcove’ so to speak for the borders to be fitted well, but also make sure the full length of the peg goes through the soil. Because we went through bark and then soil, it felt wobbly at first. But we rectified it quickly.
Also, make sure all pieces are placed as close to another as you can squeeze them, particularly on curved areas. Otherwise, you may find a slight gap between the two.
Apart from that, I think they’re a great feature in the garden! Hopefully from the pictures below, you can see how much neater the join between bark and grass looks. We’ll be making an order when we do the other side of the garden.
I think the fact that they’re eco-friendly and safe for kids is a good selling point for me. And if we change our mind about them, we can just unpeg, remove, and/or replace elsewhere. Going back to the recycled rubber aspect, they’ve took me back to Pinterest to see how else rubber can be used in the garden, although it probably won’t be until next Spring now. But hey, I’ll need something to do on maternity leave, am I right? I love the way old tyres can be used to make plant beds or hanging baskets or children’s play areas! Check out my Pinterest board for ideas, or send some my way if you see anything cool!
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*Thanks so much to the Plastic People who provided us with the EcoBorders for the purpose of this review. All words and opinions are my own and I don’t endorse companies/products that I don’t believe in. You can read more on my disclaimer here.
