I have limited patience, skills or budget to sort this, but I really want to neaten things up. The grass is my friendly neighbours. The gravel is mine. I want a nice straight edge keeps the grass and stones separate. How do I achieve this with limited patience, skills or budget!
I think I need to install some sort of edging barrier to stop the encroachment, but really hoping there is a simple solution to doing this. Would also need to be lawn mower friendly.
Yep pretty much as you say. Use a spade and cut a nice straight edge in the grass and hammer in an edging strip.
You can get an edging spade made especially for edging but that’s probably overkill if you’re never going to use it again. A normal spade can do a reasonable job.
Here is an example of a lawn edging strip. Essentially a strip of metal that you hammer into the ground.
https://www.wickes.co.uk/Gravel+Paving-Edging---10m/p/223467
You can also get gravel grids to stop the gravel migrating too. Dig up the gravel, get a flat surface and place the grids down and fill with gravel again.
Define lawn mower friendly? Any edge is going to have to be high enough to stop the gravel going on the grass and also to stop the grass migrating.
So it might need to be strimmer friendly rather than lawnmower.
I'd dig a narrow trench and set some edging stones in cement. Easiest way would be some premixed bags like postcrete and just put a sprinkle of water over them once placed then backfill. Use a string to make sure they are straight.
Honestly not that hard and will be a satisfying job once done.
