There are many ways to approach this problem, and for that reason, I brought up the topic during a tour with plant nerds several years ago. We all had beds to edge. None of us were particularly looking forward to the job. Although there is little that is more satisfying than yards of fresh delineation between what will, and what will not be cultivated, the job requires time during a season where time is scarce.

Two of us were spade purists, utilizing the classic English method of cutting a sharp 45-60 degree angle 4-6 inches deep toward the bed and mounding the soil up on the bed side – creating, in effect, a trench ‘tween grass and good, not to mention a hernia between fat, and fit. Larger sections of turf are then chopped of their loose soil and sent to the chickens or the compost pile.

Such a method allows precision, but takes time, and not a little dexterity with a spade. I once put my son on this job shortly before a thunderstorm. Two days later I inspected the work only to find that he’d thrown the freshly cut divots back toward the lawn, where they had melted into a new, ankle-twisting topography.

I have used metal edging in smaller gardens, and looked longingly those clean, easy edges of steel in large public gardens; but I have also exercised my right as a gardener to change my mind and found myself needing to pull out those edges – not quite so clean or easy when embedded in earth for four years.

None of us were fans of the electric edger. Generally there is very little power and a whole lot of aggravation (not to mention, cord). The edge is not particularly deep, channels quickly get gummed up with earth, and as a result you tend to find a lot of these during mid-summer yard sales – which is precisely where I found mine. Perhaps soon to be yours.

Next step up? The discussion turned lively when one of us pulled up a picture of her shiny Troy Bilt gas-powered edger and accompanying highly positive blog review. Sighs of longing filled the van. Then from somewhere came an impertinent question: "Is it a two-stroke?"

I believe it was me. I have an unfortunate history with such engines and have no wish to add another to the barn, no matter how shiny. Before the question could be answered however (in the negative as it turns out) there was another – this time from my fellow spade-purist: "Is it a pull start?"

We all nodded at that point, understanding the anguish behind the question and imagining scenes both past and future that involve hot days and machines that refuse to start no matter how hard one swears at them.

It was, as it happens, a pull start, but there is that honeymoon period (What is it? Four? Six months?) where ethanol has not corroded the carburetor, and entropy has not frayed the cable and stiffened the recoil spring. She loved hers – and her husband was in charge of starting it.

In the end, I decided to follow the lead of one of our number, who went with a Sunbelt weekend rental. In her garden, the EZ Trench 400 took 30 minutes to re-define 350 linear feet of bed and took no prisoners.

Certainly the finished edge reflected the name, and when up against a sharp spaded edge, would have had a hard time competing in the precision department, but the time savings were beyond impressive. A spaded edge would have taken almost ten times that long, and if you cast aside your spade for a gas-powered edger, you’d only pick it up again to move sections of soil after the edge was mechanically cut.

Though it was an extremely heavy piece of machinery, which required core muscles I had lost touch with, I spent less than two hours and edged over 900 feet of beds all over the property – even defining areas that didn’t need defining. It was addicting.

For gardeners that have let an edge go for a couple seasons on a very long bed, the EZ Trench might very well provide the motivation and the vision to get things under control once again – to be followed by a more meticulous (and routine) trim with a gas-powered edger, or a spade.

The best and worst part about an edge is that it always….always….grows back. Soil erodes, moles tunnel, weeds return. The earth is remarkably resilient and it gives us a bit of wiggle room to try something new.

And this year I’m learning how to re-build a carburetor on a yard-saled gas-powered edger.

Fabulous.