Melbourne’s weather, it gets talked about a lot and for good reason, it’s pretty weird. You’ve got huge temperature swings from one day to the next, dry summers followed by wet winters, frost in the hills and salty air near the bay, it’s all pretty much the wild card of weather. All this combines to create an outdoor environment that’s not super kind to gardens.
Things that work really well in Perth or Brisbane most certainly don’t automatically cut it in Melbourne. The extremes in seasonal conditions are just too much for a lot of edging products.
What Melbourne Soil Does to Lightweight Edging?
You see, in Melbourne the clay soils are like a double-edged sword, they cover heaps of the inner east, south east and middle ring suburbs, but most edging product descriptions barely give any thought to what that does to your edging. What happens with all that clay is that it swells and contracts with the wet winter conditions and dry summer heat respectively, creating a lot of pressure that causes your lightweight plastic edging to shift, crack and eventually pop out of place. A border that looks good in April can easily be on its side or in part displaced by September. Trying to put it back in the ground again just degrades it even more and ruins the whole defined bed edge look.
Steel, whether it’s galvanised or powder coated is a whole lot better at coping with all that clay movement, and Corten is pretty much as good as it gets in terms of metal edging. Even at 1.5 to 2.0 mm gauge, if it’s installed the right depth in compacted soil, then Corten steel garden edging Melbourne stays put without any need for constant fiddling.
UV degradation is a whole other issue, and plastic edging just can’t handle it. Our Aussie sun is just too intense and it cuts in half the lifespan of a lot of garden products. Then you start to notice it gets brittle, fades and cracks, in Melbourne you can expect to see all that happen within two to three seasons in the full-on summer sun. Especially if it’s in a north-facing bed that gets no natural shade.
Why Melbourne Garden Styles Suit Corten Particularly Well?
Melbourne has a pretty strong tradition of native planting, cottage gardens and naturalistic border design where that warm rust patina is kind of on purpose rather than an accident. It’s a perfect fit for the inner east suburbs like Balwyn, Kew, Hawthorn and Camberwell, where you’ve got big old gardens with Corten edging blending in with the stone fencing, timber pergolas and deep-rooted native planting.
Out in the hills though, where the gardens border bushland and they’re all about greens, greys and warm browns, Corten edging just doesn’t mess with the view. If your garden is more of a modern affair with clean lines and a sharp border then powder-coated edging is a better choice; Corten is still a winner though if your garden is all about looking settled and feeling organic.
Purchasing Corten Edging in Melbourne: The Key Considerations
Corten edging that comes directly from Melbourne warehouses takes away the interstate transport time for customers from Victoria. It is possible to pick up from the warehouses the same day as purchasing the product, and delivery within the city area is usually quick. All properly pre-rusted Corten edging will come with the weathered look pre-applied, meaning that the rusting effect will be visible upon first installation and will not require further outdoor exposure to achieve its rusty look.
The heights range from 75 mm to 200 mm. The 100 mm high edging is suitable for all garden bed definition purposes around Melbourne’s properties. Heights 150 mm and 200 mm are designed specifically for lawns with active couch or kikuyu runners, so that the edging is able to provide a solid barrier against them at the root level.
Professional prices and supply and installation services are offered by special Melbourne suppliers, thus making corten edging a viable option for professional Melbourne landscapers and not only for residential purposes. This allows for corten to be specified as a commercial-grade product.
Applications Where Corten Edging Really Makes A Difference
Those applications where corten edging will make the biggest difference include those where there was no proper definition of the garden area and where the previous edging has already been eroded. Turning the overgrown lawn boundary into a neat, permanent edging around the garden bed immediately improves the property. The front garden areas, where the edging will be visible from the street, have especially good return on investment, and curved garden beds benefit from Corten edging’s ability to be shaped with hands without kinking.
