One of the most significant ways of improving a home’s curb appeal is through beautiful landscape edging. The edges of your lawn, garden, flowerbeds, walkways and driveway helps define its boundaries and helps it stand out if they’re maintained properly.
No matter how often you mow your lawn, remove the weeds and rake off the grasses, without proper landscape edging, it will still look off, like something hasn’t been done right.
Using a good landscape edger like the one shown above, you can transform your yard by simply trimming off overgrown grasses at the edges of the lawn, walkways, driveways, flowerbeds, trees, light poles, mail boxes and other stationary objects in the yard.
This will help make your lawn and the surrounding landscape more appealing, and will increase your home’s curb appeal.
Now, you can hire a professional landscaper to do all of this, but if you want to take the DIY route like most homeowners do, you’ll need the right tools to get the job done. You’ll need a very good landscape or lawn edger.
There are different types you can choose from, which we’ve written about and reviewed here in this article. But first, here are out top picks. The ones we recommend the most.
Our Top Picks
BEST OVERALL: Toro Walk-Behind Edger
BEST BATTERY-POWERED: EGO Power+ ME0801
BEST FOR SMALL YARDS: Worx WG896
BEST MANUAL EDGER: Colwelt half moon edger
Types of Landscape Edgers
There are exactly 4 main types of landscape edgers you can choose from. They are:
Wheeled Walk-Behind Edgers
These are semi-heavy duty edgers that come with 4 or 3 wheels for rolling them around.
They look just like walk-behind lawn mowers, but instead of instead of the mower blade underneath, they have an adjustable edger attachment at the front for edging.
They’re mostly gas-powered are usually more efficient at edging. They’re more powerful, have the capacity to dig farther into the ground, and they produce cleaner and crisper cuts and edges than the other types of edgers.
Because the edges created are deeper, they’re more noticeable from afar.
Electric Pole Edger
Electric pole edgers look exactly like string trimmers, but instead of the string trimmer attachment, they have a vertically mounted double or triple tipped blade for edging.
Most string trimmer can be converted into an edger by just replacing the lower trimmer attachment with an edger attachment.
Electric pole edgers usually feature a single wheel at the back for riding and maneuvering it along the edges being cut.
They can either be corded or cordless (battery-powered). Battery powered units are usually better because they’re more portable, but they’re usually more expensive.
Manual Rotary Edger
Manual rotary edgers are exactly what the name implies. You power them with your hand. They usually consist of a circular rotary blade with several spiked teeth instead of a dual or triple tipped blade found in most other edgers.
The blade is attached to a long pole, and all you do is push it along the edge of the grass to cut it.
The usually don’t cut deep into the soil, and the edge they create is not really that pronounce. But they’re very effective around sidewalks and driveways as you can use them to trim any grass growing out of your main turf into the driveway or sidewalk.
Serrated Halfmoon Shovel Edger
This is basically a shovel with a halfmoon shaped, serrated blade you can use to dig out the edges around your lawn, patio, flowerbeds, driveways and walkways by yourself, manually.
This is a very manual means of approaching landscape edging, but they’re pretty effective if you’ve got the energy to dig.
These are ideal for you if you’re not dealing with a really large lawn or yard. They’re ideal for those homeowners with very small lawns in the their front yard, and are not afraid of a little manual labor.
The Best Landscape Edgers
We took several factors into consideration while choosing these edgers, as you will see from our guide below.
We considered the cut quality produced by each edger, the amount of effort required to operate them, how easy they are to maneuver, the size of yard each one is suitable for, and so much more.
Here are the 8 best landscape edgers you can get today.
Greenworks 60V Cordless Landscape Edger
This Greenworks 60V edger is simply one of the best cordless edgers you can get right now. If you’re looking for a battery-powered edger, this is one of the first ones I’d happily recommend.
It comes with everything you need to edge along your driveways, walkways and every other edge of your lawn or garden.
It’s got an 8 inch long steel blade designed specifically for such tasks. And it’s got a guide wheel to help you ride it along and keep perfect control whether you’re working a straight line or edging around corners.
And you need to know, this is a single straight shaft edger. It’s minimal and easy to store when you’re done.
It’s battery powered, so you don’t have to worry about noise, emissions or lots of maintenance. Just charge the battery and get to work.
The 60V 2.0 Ah battery it comes with is great, and will give you about an hours worth of work when it’s fully charge, but you can always upgrade to a 4.0 Ah battery to get more runtime out of the tool.
Build quality is great. With great handling, it will last for many years. Overall, I really like the 60V Greenworks edger. It’s easy to use, very easy to maneuver, super easy to maintain, and it’s not too heavy.
Pros
- Noise-free operation
- Requires very little maintenance
- Very easy to maneuver
- Great build quality
Cons
- The 2.0 Ah battery it comes with may not have enough runtime if you have a very large yard. You may need to upgrade to a 4.0 Ah battery or just get a spare 2.0 Ah battery as backup
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Toro Walk-Behind Landscape Edger
If you want a more robust and powerful edging equipment, you should consider getting a walk-behind landscape edger like this particular one from Toro Tools.
This is a very powerful walk-behind gas-powered edger you can use for both home and commercial projects. This will handle tougher grounds or more demanding applications.
The drawback is the noise. It’s a gas powered unit, so you should expect to deal with some noise. Although this unit is equipped with a 4-cycle engine which is not as noisy as the 2-cycle engines, and it’s also easier to maintain compared to the 2-cycle units.
I really like this Toro edger. It’s got 4 wheels for balance. All you’ve got to do is push it along the lines you want to edge. The cutting head pivots. That means you can cut at multiple angles and create whatever design that suits your taste.
The height of the blade is not just fixed. You can adjust it from 0.5 inch to 3.5 inches depending on the terrain and the kind of design you’re going for.
Like I said earlier, gas-powered landscape edgers like are much powerful than pole edgers, and thus create cleaner and crisper cut lines. And that’s exactly one of the many reasons I really recommend this Toro walk-behind unit.
This is not just for commercial projects. You can get it for your personal projects as well. It’s big, it’s powerful, and it’s will help you make quick work of all your edging projects.
Pros
- It’s very powerful
- The adjustable blade angle makes it easy to use along slopes
- The build quality is great
- It edges a lot faster than the handheld pole units
Cons
- It’s quite noisy
- Requires a lot of assembly
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EGO Power+ ME0801 Landscape Edger Combo Kit
This is a complete battery-powered edger combo kit from EGO Power+ tools that includes a straight shaft wheeled edger, a 56V 2.5 Ah Lithium ion battery and a charger to juice it up.
It comes with everything you need to create the perfect edges for your patio, flowerbeds, walkways and driveways.
One of the coolest things about this edger is that it’s got a Power Head shaft. That means you can replace the edger attachment on it with several of Ego Power+ other attachments, like their string trimmer attachments, pole saws, hedger trimmer attachments and so on.
So, once you’ve got this unit, you can just get additional attachments for your other outdoor projects, and they’ll work with this Power Head.
This particular edger has an 8 inch steel blade which is very durable. It lasts for a very long time before you need to replace. Of course, it depends on how often you use it. For most homeowners, the blade should last for a year+.
You can also adjust the blade depth as you cut. You can adjust it to cut deep into the ground or just make shallow cuts, depending on what you’re comfortable with.
Overall, this EGO Power+ edger kit really has everything most homeowners need to edge their lawns, and improve their curb appeal. The build quality is great, you don’t have to worry about noise, and it doesn’t require much maintenance because it’s battery-powered. No gas engines to service.
Pros
- Easy to maintain
- Noise-free use
- Quality construction
- It’s very powerful. Cuts through the edges so easily
Cons
- It’s quite heavy
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Dewalt DCED472X1 60V Cordless Edger
One of the best cordless edgers you can get your hands on today is this Dewalt DCED472X1. It’s a 60V cordless edger with a 7-1/2 inch hardened steel blade designed for the most demanding edging projects.
It’s a pole landscape edger from one of the best cordless power tool brands. I really like the build quality. It’s well constructed and feels really sturdy in the hand.
Performance-wise, this thing cuts through anything you through at it. It’s very powerful like a gas unit, but with none of the disadvantages.
Works quietly and it’s very easy to maintain. It’s got a single guide wheel to help maneuver it along the edges easily.
One of the features I like most about this Dewalt edger is its variable speed trigger. The harder you press the trigger the faster the blade spins. So, you have all the control you need right at your fingertips. And that really helps a lot, allowing you to adjust the speed depending on the area you’re edging.
The handles are also well designed. They’re rubberized and comfortable to hold.
Overall, everything works really well. It required almost no assembly, battery and charger is included, and it’s got really good runtime per charge.
Pros
- It’s very powerful
- Premium build quality
- Requires minimal maintenance
- Quiet operation
- Very little assembly required
Cons
- Assembly manual was poorly written. The edger however required very little assembly. If you know your way around tools like this, you’d have it up and running in no time.
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Troy-Bilt TBE304 Walk-Behind Landscape Edger
This is the Troy-Bilt TBE304 landscape edger. It’s another gas-powered walk-behind edger unit that I really like.
It’s similar to the unit from Toro above, but this has more low-profile build. It’s also powered with a 4-cycle engine.
Instead of 4 tires, this Troy-Bilt has 3. 1 in the front and 2 at the bag. In terms of manoeuvrability, it’s handles very well. It’s very easy to direct it and push it along as you edge.
It doesn’t lack in power at all. You can use this to handle any type of edging project, no matter the soil type or grass type. Thing thing just cuts through quick and clean.
Some people may not like the smaller low profile design, but I like it. I fine it a bit easier to maneuver.
Unlike the Toro above which has a 3-tipped blade, this Troy-Bilt comes with a 9 inch 2 tipped blade. I’m not really sure whether the blade design makes any difference though, because both edgers worked like charm.
The biggest advantage of this particular Troy-Bilt is the price. It’s so budge-friendly for a 4-cycle gas-powered walk-behind edger. The price is almost unbelievable
There are pole edgers more expensive than this.
Pros
- It’s budget-friendly. Very inexpensive
- It’s very powerful
- Starts up easily
- Very easy to maneuver
Cons
- Build quality could be improved.
Earthquake 41273 Walk-Behind Landscape Edger
The Earthquake 41273 is literally a replica of the Toro walk-behind edger I already talked about above.
Everything is simply the same. I think the only different is the brand name on both machines.
Both got a 79 cc 4-cyle engines, pivoting blade, same depth adjustment, same frame and every other feature.
For some reason however, the price of the Earthquake edger is a little bit lower than that of the Toro. So, in terms of cost, the Earthquake will cause you a little bit less.
But both machines are essentially the same.
The build quality of this particular unit is great, it’s got a lot of power, and it’s also very easy to maneuver.
Overall, the Earthquake 41273 is a machine I really feel confident recommending, if you’re looking for a very good gas-powered walk-behind edger.
Pros
- It’s a very powerful edger
- Very easy to maneuver
- It creates cleaner, crisper edges
- It edges faster than handheld pole units
Cons
- Takes some time to assemble
Worx WG896 Landscape Edger
The Worx WG896 is not just an edger. It’s also a trencher. You can use it to bury wire cables used in other applications (like robotic lawn mower guide wires) in your garden.
It’s a single pole edger, but it’s designed and built just like a walk-behind unit, which is one of the best things I really like about it.
You can operate it just like a normal walk-behind unit because it’s got 3 tires keeping it steady as you ride it along the edges. My only drawback is that it’s a corded electric unit.
You’ve got to be working with an electric wire connected to it. Apart from that, this thing really works. It’s powerful, and it’s easy to maneuver.
The shaft can be adjusted to suit your height, so no matter what your height is, you can be sure you’ll be comfortable using it. It’s got a 12 amp motor powering it, and a 7.5 inch 2-tipped blade for edging and trenching.
What I like most about the Worx WG896 is really the design. It’s not just some handheld pole edger. It actually looks and works like a walk-behind unit.
I also like the price. This is one of the most budget-friendly edgers you can get your hands on right now. You’ll not get a better price than this, unless it’s a manual edger.
Pros
- Great value for money. Price is very good.
- Easy to maneuver.
- Great design.
- It doubles as a trencher for laying down wires.
Cons
- It’s corded. You’re limited by the length of the wire. So, I don’t think this is really designed for very large lawns or yards.
Colwelt Half Moon Lawn Edger
If you have a very small lawn and you think an electric or gas powered edger might just be too much for it, then a manual one like this AMES 2917200 saw-tooth edger might just be what you need.
This works just like a shovel, but the blade is half, and it’s serrated so it can cut through the edges and roots clean and easily.
Like I said, these kind of edgers are very good for small lawns. You can’t use this to edge a 1 acre lawn. Technically you can, but that’s going to take some serious time and labor.
But the good thing about this type of edger is that it’s the easiest to maintain. Its runtime is how much energy you have. You edge with it till you get tired. It doesn’t give out.
Apart from edging, you can also use it as a trencher to lay wires in the ground. You can even use it to dig out soil if you can’t find your shovel. There’s so much you can do with it.
Overall, I really recommend this Colwelt half moon edger for you if you have a really small lawn and you’re not afraid to put in some work to improve that curb appeal.
Pros
- Ideal for very small lawns
- Unlimited runtime. You can use it for as long as you want
- Almost no maintenance required. Just rinse it with your garden hose when you’re done using it
- Stores easily. Takes very little storage space
- It’s very versatile. It’s not just for edging. You can use it for trenching and digging soil in your garden
Cons
- Requires a lot of manual labor
What To Consider When Choosing A Landscape Edger
Here are the main factors we consider and you should also consider when choosing a landscape edger.
The size of your yard or the perimeter of the area you’re edging
The size of your lawn or the perimeter of the area you’re edging is very important. If you have a very large lawn, maybe about an acre, you need something that will make your job easier and faster.
You can’t use a manual edger for that, because you’ll spend all they there, and expend a whole lot of energy trying to cut the edges with a manual tool.
Gas-powered walk behind edgers are usually more efficient for those kinds of projects, and they create cleaner, crisper cuts.
You can also consider electric battery-powered pole units for such projects.
Manual edgers are for very small lawns and yards. And you have to be ready to put in the manual labor required to use them.
Power source
Power source affects a lot of things. It affects ease of use, maintenance and how much noise the equipment produces.
Gas powered edgers are much more powerful but they make lots of noise and requires more maintenance.
Electric battery powered units are much quieter, requires very little maintenance, but they may not be as effective as a gas powered unit, in terms of run time and power.
Electric corded units are very powerful, also requires very little maintenance, but they’re also not very ideal for large yards, because they’re limited by the length of the extension cord they uses.
Most people usually go for battery powered units, because they average out everything you need. They’re very portable without wires to limit your range, they’re easy to maintain, and they’re also very powerful.
The two main issues you’ll have with them are their runtime and weight. The batteries can make them quite heavy and a bit difficult to handle for long periods.
The easiest edgers to use are gas-powered walk-behind units. They’re very powerful and easy to maneuver. The only drawback they have is they can be very noisy, and they require a lot more maintenance.
Cutting capacity
Some edgers cut deeper than others. And the deeper the cut produced by the edger, the more defined the edge will be.
Someone looking from afar will be able to see the beautiful edges around your lawn if the cuts are deep and are well defined.
Most manual rotary edgers don’t cut really deep. They just cut only the grasses on the surfaces, unless you’re using a halfmoon shovel edger. But those are very laborious to use.
Electric pole units do cut deep into the soil and produce well-defined edges. But, gas-powered walk-behind units cut deepest into the soil and produce the cleanest, crispest edges you can ever create around your yard
Cut Quality
Some edgers create sharper, neater cuts than others. The rule of thumb is, the more powerful the edger is, the faster the blade rotates and the cleaner the cuts produced.
Gas powered walk-behind edgers are usually more powerful, and their blades spin faster. That’s why the edges they create are usually cleaner, crisper and neater.
Maneuverability and Ease of Use
We consider how easy each edger is to use and maneuver, and you have to consider that too when making your choice.
Pole edgers are very easy to maneuver, but you have to consider their weight. Some are heavier than others.
The heavier it is, the faster it will tire you off.
Gas walk-behind units are considerably easier to maneuver. You just have to push them around, and they do all the cutting.
However, they take more storage space. Pole edgers are easier to store. You can just hang them on a wall somewhere in your garage or tool shed.
Which of these would you recommend for a “not terribly physically strong, not mechanically minded at all”, gardening enthusiast? A pick it up and go edger. Please.
Hi Julia,
If you are edging between paved walkways or a paved driveway and the lawn, the cheaper electric models are a good choice, they are usually lightweight and require little maintenance.
I would not recommend a small gas powered engine. Too much maintenance.
If you use the tool far from an electric outlet or you are concerned about cutting the cord, there are some good battery operated options as well.
If you edge between flower beds and lawn then you really need a “bed redefiner”, but that’s a major expense so a spade is probably the best option, get one with a straight blade. You can’t beat it for low maintenance.
I edge about 450 feet between flower beds and lawn with a spade, you can even get narrow ones to make it easier to dig in. The key is to go slow so you don’t wear yourself out. I have a plug-in edger for the walkways, gives really crisp look.
Is there a machine to eliminate grass/ expose the soil so that plantings can be made directly into the soil (flower bed maker)?
An excellent answer; one that I would echo. I have found that an edger that works for sidewalks doesn’t dig deep enough for flower beds. I love the way that videos show what bed edgers can do but don’t want a gas engine or the expense. My yard man did a pretty good job with a powerful string trimmer, but I lost him. My grandson is now mowing my lawn OK, but is doing a poor job of edging beds with an electric string trimmer. Will have to find a new yard man. At age 85 with a bad back I just can’t do yard work anymore.