itsmejson said:
Anyone rotate your trimmer and use it as an edger around garden/mulch beds?
Yes. I currently do all of my edging with it.
Pros:
It is very gentle on the concrete. Also forgiving for any plastic/metal landscape edging.
The design of the tool makes it very easy to "feel" and follow both hard edges and soft/natural bed edges.
It doesn't throw mulch everywhere.
It leaves a very slim trench, for a nice clean edge.
One tool trims and edges.
Cons:
It's slow compared to a stick edger, especially for slightly overgrown edges.
It's less than ideal for overgrown edges. Much better as a maintenance tool.
I still like a string trimmer for valve boxes/meter covers in the lawn.
I usually flip the trimmer 180° (upside down) and raise the engine, and use my left hand to grip the drive tube just below the loop handle. This puts the PRS vertical and gives me a good grip to counter any reactionary forces. The downside to edging like this is on some trimmers, this puts the exhaust muffler outlet next to my right ear. Hearing protection highly recommended for dino-powered rigs.
It's pretty hard on the blade edges. They hold up pretty well, but understand you're beating up a $60 set of blades compared to a $5 edger blade.
NOTE: Idech recommends the larger 11" blades for edging and I concur it would help with overgrown edges and hard edges that rise above the turf 1"+.
