How To Use An Electric Lawn Edger Safely - Step By Step Guide & Tips

A great way to improve your landscaping is with nicely edged garden beds. Sure, that sounds easy, except the problem is their real pain to do, and if you've got a lot on them, it can take a long time that most people just can't spend.

Buying a power tool might be an easy task but using it safely without any problem, probably not, especially if you don't know anything about the tool that you are holding in your hands. Today in this blog, we will talk about a how-to guide that seems to be very easy, but it is not, which is how to use an electric lawn edger safely.

A lawn edger is a tool used to form distinct boundaries, which gives your garden a cool finishing by cutting the extra grass on your lawn edges that comes between your lawn and sidewalks and makes your garden ugly.

Step By Step Guide To Use An Electric Lawn Edger

Step 1: Choosing A Perfect Lawn Edger

For making your ground edges efficiently, you must use a good electric lawn edger. For a good electric lawn edger, you should check if it has at least 12 amp motor with a blade size of about 7.5 inches which most of the lawn edger have, lightweight, easy to adjust its cutting depth, and also have a comfortable handle grip then it can be considered as a good lawn edger. Below are the three best electric lawn edgers you can buy if you face any difficulty making your choice.

Best Overall - WORX Electric Lawn Edger, Orange and Black
Best Performer - Husqvarna Gas Lawn Edger, 128LD
Best Battery Powered - BLACK+DECKER Lawn Edger, LCC222

Step 2: Protect Yourself

The lawn edger spreads a lot of dust and small stones while cutting that can enter your eye and harm you. So, It is very important to protect yourself. Start working with your lawn edger by using good quality safety glasses, hearing protection gears, and protective clothing.

Best Glasses - NoCry Safety Glasses with Black & Green Frames
Best Helmet - TR Industrial Hard Hat Forestry Safety Helmet & Ear Muffs
Best Protective Clothing Set - Cold Creek Loggers Professional Combo Kit

Step 3: Mowing The Lawn

Mowing the lawn before using a lawn edger is always recommended. You should mow the lawn with a power lawn mower so that you'll get a whole idea of where you need to use the lawn edger on the edges of the ground; otherwise, it would be tough to do perfect clean trimming in the long grasses. You can mow the lawn by using a simple lawn mower also, but a power lawn mower can cut the grasses faster and more efficiently than a hand-powered push lawn mower.

Step 4: Marking The Garden

As you are a beginner, I would highly suggest you guys to mark your garden before edging it. For marking your lawn, all you have to do is take a long rope or hose, put it on the edges of the ground, and make sure that it is at some distance from your walkways and it is not touching them.

The main purpose of this step is to keep you on track while edging the lawn because most beginners start edging before marking it; as a result of it, they get strayed from their path and make the edges ugly and uneven. When you'll do this step about 4-5 times, then you'll get used to it, and you'll not need to mark your garden again and again before edging it.

Step 5: Adjust The Depth Of Cut

Before starting using a lawn edger, you should first know how to adjust the depth of the cut. First, make sure that your electric edger is not taking power from the supply. When you look towards your edger's wheel, you will see a wide slot attached to the wheel and a knob, which is also called a depth adjusting knob, which plays an important role in setting the height of the edger's blade.

Loose this knob by simply rotating it in an anticlockwise direction. You can increase the depth of cut by raising the wheel and decrease the depth of cut by lowering it down. It is recommended that this cutting depth should be under the half-inch or quarter of an inch.

Step 6: Start The Edging

Lets me give you a few key points here. First of all, you got your blade, so you're going to want to line your blade up directly the crack of your sidewalk and your grass.

Next, You have a shield. The shield will be on the pavement side, so the blade is against the grass, and then the shield, your gear head, and you walk on the concrete.

• You can also use your edger by moving the wheel on the grass, but only if you have a pretty thick edge than your gear head will be so high up that barely any blade is actually going into the crack between the grass and the sidewalk.
  
  
• You can also use your edger by moving the wheel on the grass, but only if you have a pretty thick edge than your gear head will be so high up that barely any blade is actually going into the crack between the grass and the sidewalk.
  
  
• Make sure that the blade should be parallel to the sidewalk while moving; otherwise, it might get broke by hitting the concrete.
  
  
• Keep some distance between you and your edger. One meter of distance should be fine.
  
  
• Now, start the engine by pressing the button placed on the handle. Push the edger slowly by taking the help of the marking that you made earlier by rope or hose and let the edger do the rest of the job. Just make sure that you are edging straight.
  
  

Step 7: Clear The Unwanted Grass

Use a lawn mower to clear the edges from dust and chopped grasses as it will suck all the dust and chopped grasses from the ground. You can also use a leaf blower instead of a lawn mower, but using a lawn mower might save your time as you'll not need to remove all the waste manually like you need to do with the leaf blower.

In the last, you can use a hand sheer to remove the remaining grass, which may have remained in the corner of the sidewalk.

Points To Keep In Mind While Using An Electric Lawn Edger

• Always read the user manual carefully. It will give you a complete overview of your tool and instruct you about its different adjustments and maintenance.



• Try to clear the area with the help of a blower before start edging. It will remove most of the debris and other small stones that will come into your way while edging the lawn.



• Don't try to remove the glass or other safety equipment in the middle of the work until the work has complete otherwise, you'll regret it later.



• As you are using a corded edger, make sure that your cord is long enough so that you can take your edger wherever you want on the ground while edging.



• Check the edger's condition after every use, especially the blade, and change it if it is in bad condition.



• Try to keep the cord to the opposite side of the grass and sidewalk. This seems easy, but trust me, it is not, so please pay attention to your cord while working as it comes in your way again and again.



• Try to turn off the edger faster, wait for the engine to get cooled, and don't touch it.