MavroraEdging a lawn without scalping it
A trimmer takes the edge off a lawn in ten minutes or takes the lawn off altogether. The difference is mostly in how you hold it.
Start with the right blade
The trimmer comes with three: a plastic blade, a stainless steel blade and a manganese saw disc. For an edge, the plastic blade is almost always the one. It cuts soft grass cleanly, it forgives a moment of contact with stone or a fence post, and it is the cheapest thing in the box to replace.
The steel blade earns its place in weeds and thin woody growth along a wall. The saw disc is for brush and small shrub stems – not for an edge, and never along gravel, where it will throw stones hard enough to break a window.
Set the height before you start
The telescopic shaft adjusts between 95 and 125 cm. Set it so you stand upright with the head flat on the grass and your elbows relaxed. If you have to stoop, the head drops as you tire, and a dropping head is what carves bare patches.
The tilt does the work
The cutting head turns through 0 to 90°. For a face edge – the vertical cut where the lawn meets a path – turn it to 90° and let the blade run along the line of the paving with the guard riding the stone. Walk backwards at a steady pace. Backwards keeps the cut line in view and your feet out of it.
For the flat pass, bring the head back to level and keep it a finger’s width above the soil. Grass cut at a constant height looks trimmed; grass cut into the ground looks scalped and takes a fortnight to recover.
Work in two passes
- A face pass along the hard edge, defining the line.
- A flat pass over the strip behind it, blending back into the mown lawn.
Two light passes beat one heavy one. The motor runs at 18,000 rpm, which means it cuts faster than you should move – hurrying just drags the head into the soil.
Save the second battery for the second half. Two 48 V batteries come in the box. Put the spare on charge while you use the first, and you will finish a normal garden without stopping.
Around trees, posts and beds
Leave a hand’s width of grass at the base of a young tree rather than cutting against the bark: a trimmer will ring a sapling in seconds and it will not recover. Around posts, slow down and use the guard as a bumper. Along a bed, cut with the head tilted slightly away so clippings fly into the lawn and not over your planting.
Before you put it away
- Take the battery out before you touch the blade. Every time.
- Brush the sap and grass off the head; dried sap holds moisture against the steel.
- Check the blade for chips and the guard for cracks.
- Store it with the shaft shortened, out of the rain.
Eye protection matters more than gloves here, whatever blade is fitted. Anything the head touches leaves at speed.
The tool in this note is our Cordless Grass Trimmer 48V, €69.99 delivered.
Last updated 23 September 2026