This is a small garden issue, but I don’t know how to handle it. So I’ve been planting in the hellstrip, and it’s bothering me that even though a couple times a year I mulch and neaten the edge, it quickly gets messy again, as you can see in the first photo. I mean, mess is endemic in a garden, but somehow in that big public sidewalk, it’d be nice if it were a bit neater. What can I do to keep that edge crisper? Should I actually add some kind of plastic edging that pokes up a bit? Something else? What would a professional landscaper do, or the municipal planting people?
Coneflower and Russian sage, hosta and yarrow.