- 1). Using spray paint, mark a line in the soil along the outside of the landscaping bed to serve as a guide for your spade.
- 2). Insert the spade straight down into the soil along the marked line and drive it down by placing your foot on the flat edge on top of the spade. Make the trench at least 1 inch deeper than the depth of the plastic edging. Grass roots can grow about 6 inches into to earth, so you'll need to make sure the trench is deep enough to keep the roots from moving underneath the edging.
- 3). Continue to make this trench down the entire length of the landscaping bed. Each time the spade is inserted into the ground, move it back and forth to loosen and remove the soil from the trench.
- 4). Shake the soil from the sod into the edge of the landscaping bed. Place the sod into the wheelbarrow. Keep it to patch bare patches in the lawn or add it to your compost pile to decompose with the grass side down.
- 5). Unroll the plastic edging and cut it to fit the length you need. Hold it against the lawn-side of the trench and push it as far down as you can. Every time one foot of edging is pushed in the ground, use the loose soil on the edge of the landscaping bed to fill in empty space in the trench next to the edging.
- 6). For curved edging, use landscaping stakes to hold the plastic edging in place by driving it through the plastic and into the lawn horizontally.
- 7). Using your feet, tamp down the soil on the outside of the plastic edging so that the top of the edging is level with the soil. If too much edging is showing, use more loose soil on top and tamp it down until it's at the desired depth.
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