Patent Application
20050087670
The field of the present invention relates to a landscape edging system and, more particularly, to a method of and an apparatus for separating adjoining landscape, walkway, driveway, or other areas from one another.
Gardeners, landscapers, and homeowners frequently use border or edging material such as fences, logs, railroad ties, bricks, concrete blocks, and the like to provide a decorative edge for a landscape or garden. Such border or edging materials are also frequently employed to physically separate landscape, walkway, driveway, or other areas from one another.
Lengths of wood, corrugated metal bands, and decorative cement blocks are commonly used to provide a landscape border. Although wood provides an aesthetically pleasing landscape border, wood is subject to rot and insect attack and thus decays over time. Ungalvanized metal bands around the wood oxidize, rust, and tend to become bent or misshapen over time. Even galvanized metal bands eventually corrode once the protective zinc coating has been oxidized. Decorative cement blocks are inflexible and are difficult to install because of their weight. Also, each block costs approximately $1, and a standard yard requires between about 300 and about 500 cement blocks, making this an expensive method of forming a landscape border. Further, the use of cement blocks does not provide a subsurface barrier, so weeds, grass, flowers, or the like can grow into adjoining areas of the yard. Consequently, all of these landscape border materials must be replaced or repaired rather frequently and/or are expensive and time-consuming to maintain and install.
Plastic landscape edging, on the other hand, is inexpensive, readily available, flexible, and durable. As a result of the disadvantages inhering in wood, metal, and cement landscaping materials and the unique advantages of plastic, plastic landscape edging has become a landscape edging material of choice for many homeowners. Plastic landscape edging is commonly used to divide and separate different landscape areas, to preclude material in one area from spilling over into an adjacent area, and to prevent weeds, grass, flowers, or the like contained in one area from growing in an adjoining area. For example, plastic edging is typically used to divide grass landscape areas from adjoining garden areas and to prevent grass from taking root in adjoining garden areas. Plastic edging also helps prevent garden bedding material from spilling onto the adjoining landscape area. The most prevalent materials used to fabricate plastic landscape edging today are inert, synthetic, and flexible plastics such as polyethylene and ethylene vinyl acetate.
Although landscape-edging components formed from inert, synthetic, and flexible plastics have many advantages, problems nevertheless occur in their use. Conventional plastic landscape edging usually consists of a single longitudinally extending strip of plastic material having a lower edge that is inserted into the ground at a predetermined depth and an upper edge, or rail that generally projects above the ground. The edging is typically installed by digging a narrow trench, inserting the lower edge into the ground at a predetermined depth, refilling the trench, and compacting the earth around the edging to secure its placement. Such installation normally maintains the edging in its intended position for a period of time.
As time passes, however, the environment and other factors actively work against the edging's remaining in its original position. The edging may be walked on, bumped, kicked, shoved aside, or otherwise engaged in such a manner that it is displaced from its original position. For example, lawn mowers or tractors may drive over the edging, causing displacement or damage. Further, the winter effects of frost heave or the freezing and thawing action of the earth surrounding the edging also cause edging displacement and damage. The ground retains moisture in the fall that freezes during the winter due to the dropping temperatures. Water is one of the few materials having a coefficient of volume expansion that increases as temperature decreases, and the ground accordingly expands with frozen moisture in the winter. This expansion has the effect of compressing and heaving the landscape edging, and as a result the edging often breaks or is laterally or vertically displaced. When spring arrives, plastic landscape edging is often found to have buckled upwards and protruded from the ground during the winter in response to frost heave, especially where adjacent strips of edging are connected to one another. As temperatures rise in the spring and summer months, the moisture beneath the ground surface melts, changing the volume of the subsurface ground adjoining the edging. As the seasons alternate, the landscape edging is repeatedly exposed to a variety of forces arising from changing soil volumes that, over a prolonged period of time, cause the edging to become dislodged or damaged.
One prior art attempt at circumventing the problems that exist in these prior art landscape-edging systems involves installing a concrete landscape border. Concrete borders are exceptionally durable and low-maintenance. Also, they create an impenetrable barrier through which weeds, grass, flowers, or the like cannot grow, thus preventing plants in one area from growing into an adjoining area. One method of installing a concrete landscape border involves employing a construction company to (1) build customized frames that define the desired shape of the landscape border and (2) pour concrete into the forms. Customized forms are typically constructed of 2×4s nailed together and then staked to the ground, to ensure that the forms do not move while the concrete is being poured or is hardening. This process typically requires a crew of between two and three people and costs approximately $18 per linear foot of concrete landscape border.
A second, less expensive method of installing a concrete landscape border involves employing a curbing company that extrudes concrete in the desired shape along the desired length of the landscape border. Because this process does not require the construction of customized forms, it can typically be completed by a smaller crew. Consequently, the average cost is approximately $6 per linear foot of concrete landscape border.
Although concrete landscape borders offer exceptional durability and provide an impenetrable barrier to weed growth, most homeowners cannot afford the high costs associated with hiring a crew to build or extrude a concrete landscape border.
The present inventors have thus recognized a need for an easier and more affordable method of and apparatus for forming a concrete landscape border.
The present invention is directed to a method of and an apparatus for using landscape-edging members to form a containment volume into which concrete, or other suitable landscape border materials, may be added to form a landscape border. A preferred method involves positioning a first elongate member and a second elongate member parallel to one another such that the distance between the first and second elongate members is substantially the same as the desired width of the landscape border. The first and second elongate members are also positioned adjacent to a ground surface along a portion of the desired length of the landscape border. At least one connecting member configured to engageably interconnect with each of the first and second elongate members is then positioned between the first and second elongate members to secure them at a separation forming the desired landscape border width and thereby form a containment volume having a structural integrity that is sufficient to withstand the lateral forces imposed on the containment volume when the material whose presence forms a landscape border is placed into the containment volume. A preferred exemplary material whose presence forms a landscape border is concrete. Once the landscape border material is placed in the containment volume, the material is allowed to harden, if necessary, to form the landscape border. Then, the connecting member(s) and the first and second elongate members may be removed from the formed landscape border.
A preferred apparatus includes first and second elongate members, each of which preferably has an elongate side member height that is greater than or equal to the desired height of the landscape border, and multiple connecting members configured to engageably interconnect with each of the first and second elongate members. The first and second elongate members and the connecting members are preferably formed of a plastic such as polyethylene, polypropylene, or ethylene vinyl acetate. Other elastomeric, polymeric, or synthetic materials are also suitable for forming the landscape edging members.
Additional aspects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
a, 2b, and 2c are respective isometric, front elevation, and side view schematic drawings of a preferred embodiment of the connecting member.
In a preferred application of a method of and an apparatus for forming a containment volume into which concrete, or any other landscape border material, may be added to form a landscape border, a landscape border forming apparatus 10 preferably includes a first elongate member 12, a second elongate member 14, and at least two connecting members 16 as shown in
First and second elongate members 12 and 14 are positioned parallel to one another such that a separation distance 32 between them is substantially the same as the desired width of the landscape border. An exemplary preferred a separation distance 32 is between about 2 inches (5.08 cm) and about 6 inches (15.24 cm). First and second elongate members 12 and 14 have an elongate member height 33 that is equal to or greater than the desired height of the landscape border. In a preferred embodiment, the elongate member height is between about 2 inches (5.08 cm) and about 6 inches (15.24 cm). Further, in a preferred embodiment, elongate member height 33 is between about 0.25 inch (0.635 cm) and about 2 inches (5.08 cm) greater than the desired height of the landscape border.
Connecting member 16 is configured to engageably interconnect with each of first and second elongate members 12 and 14. When connected to first and second elongate members 12 and 14, respectively, connecting member 16 secures the elongate members at a separation distance 32 and thereby forms containment volume 28 into which may be placed a material whose presence forms a landscape border.
A variety of means for interconnecting connecting member 16 with each of first and second elongate members 12 and 14 may be employed. In a preferred embodiment, shown in
Connecting member 16 preferably forms an expansion joint in the concrete landscape border to provide an expansion allowance. As described above, the volume of the concrete, or other landscape border material, forming the landscape border changes slightly depending on weather conditions. In the cold of winter, the concrete contracts slightly; in the heat of summer, the concrete expands slightly. If no expansion joints are built into the landscape border, the border may crack or split during these changes in volume. Thus a preferred embodiment of landscape border forming apparatus 10 includes an expansion control joint. When connecting member 16 is interconnectively adjoined to first and second elongate members 12 and 14 and when concrete, or any other landscape border material, is poured into containment volume 28, the concrete flows into and fills the open areas, including a hollow 52; however, the concrete, or other landscape border material, does not fill the area occupied by connecting member 16. Once the concrete hardens and connecting member 16 is removed, the areas that are not filled with concrete form expansion control joints that prevent the concrete landscape border from cracking or splitting as a result of its natural expansion and contraction. An exemplary preferred embodiment includes an expansion control joint having a thickness of about 1.27 cm (0.5 inch).
In one preferred exemplary embodiment, connecting member 16 includes hollow 52, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
An exemplary preferred landscape border forming apparatus 10, as shown in
A preferred method of installing landscape border forming apparatus 10 involves positioning first and second elongate members 12 and 14 parallel to one another at a separation distance 32 and adjacent to ground surface 30 along at least a portion of the desired length of the landscape border such that upper portion 24 extends above ground surface 30. Connecting member 16 is then positioned to slidably, engageably interconnect with each of first and second elongate members 12 and 14 such that connecting member 16 secures first and second elongate members 12 and 14 such that the distance between them defines a separation distance 32, which is substantially the same as the desired width of the landscape border. Affixation of first and second elongate members 12 and 14 forms containment volume 28. Next, concrete, or another material having sufficient mechanical integrity to form a solid or semisolid landscape border, is deposited into containment volume 28. The concrete or other material is allowed to harden, and then landscape border forming apparatus 10 is removed from the resulting landscape border. The removal step preferably involves lifting, sliding, or otherwise removing connecting members 16 and peeling or otherwise removing first and second elongate members 12 and 14 from the landscape border. Because landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably reusable, the entire process can be repeated to extend the length of the landscape border.
Although these methods may be practiced using only one first elongate member 12 and one second elongate member 14 and two connecting members 16, an alternative embodiment involves aligning a plurality of engaging, abutting, or interconnected elongate members 12 and 14 along the length of the desired landscape border adjacent to or beneath ground surface 30. In this alternative embodiment, the ends of the plurality of elongate members 12 and 14 are preferably of a shape that permits their engageable interconnection. As stated above, a variety of means for interconnecting elongate members 12 and 14 may be employed, such as, for example, complementary shapes, a tongue-and-groove connection, and pins.
In another alternative embodiment, landscape border forming apparatus 10 may be constructed such that its use forms a decorative, angled, or shaped landscape border. For example, first and second elongate members 12 and 14 may have a graduated thickness along their height that provides an aesthetically pleasing angling of the resulting landscape border. Alternatively, first and second elongate members 12 and 14 may have sufficient stiffness such that their shape is curved or otherwise decorative. Alternatively, one or both of elongate members 12 and 14 may include preformed corners.
Landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably formed by extruding and molding a synthetic material that is resilient, flexible, inert, ultraviolet- (UV) resistant, and capable of withstanding wide variations in ambient temperature and humidity. To this end, landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably formed of a plastic material such as polyethylene, polypropylene, linear high-density polyethylene, or ethylene vinyl acetate. However, other elastomeric, polymeric, or synthetic materials are also suitable for forming landscape border forming apparatus 10. The chosen elastomeric, polymeric, or synthetic material for forming landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably sufficiently durable that it can be reused numerous times, permitting the user to form unlimited lengths of landscape border. Further, the chosen elastomeric, polymeric, or synthetic material for forming landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably inexpensive, allowing the average homeowner to have sufficient funds to purchase and use landscape border forming apparatus 10. Also, the chosen elastomeric, polymeric, or synthetic material for forming landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably highly flexible such that landscape border forming apparatus 10 can easily be positioned to conform to the contours of the adjacent lawn area. Lastly, a preferred elastomeric, polymeric, or synthetic material for forming landscape border forming apparatus 10 is preferably water-resistant such that apparatus 10 can be rinsed with water to quickly and easily remove residual concrete from apparatus 10 following its use.
Landscape border apparatus 10 may be treated with a surface preparation that affects the water-resistance, peelability from the concrete landscape border, UV-resistance, or other mechanical property of landscape border apparatus 10. For example, landscape border apparatus 10 may be treated with a Teflon-impregnated coating that facilitates landscape border apparatus 10's resistance to adhesion with the concrete poured into landscape border apparatus 10.
One significant drawback to most plastics finding application in landscape border design is their relatively rapid breakdown caused by exposure to UV radiation. Thus landscape border forming apparatus 10 may be protected or shielded from UV radiation by treatment with a UV-resistant coating. However, because landscape border forming apparatus 10 is usually removed from the formed concrete landscape border, and is thus not continually exposed to UV radiation, application of this UV-resistant coating is merely optional.
Landscape border forming apparatus 10 is also preferably sufficiently flexible and structurally configured to permit packaging in a coiled fashion. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,970 to Reum et al., which discloses lawn or landscape edging members that lend themselves particularly well to being packaged in coiled fashion.
Landscape border forming apparatus 10 of the preferred embodiment may offer various advantages over prior art methods of forming landscape borders. First, homeowners may inexpensively and easily form a decorative and durable concrete landscape border having any desired shape, e.g., around flowerbeds, along driveways, and encircling trees. Because landscape border forming apparatus 10 is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use, homeowners can use the apparatus to practice the method themselves, greatly reducing the cost of the process as compared to prior art methods of forming a concrete landscape border. Also, because landscape border forming apparatus 10 can be reused numerous times, homeowners need only purchase a single do-it-yourself kit in order to form an unlimited length of concrete landscape border. Second, the formation of a concrete border eliminates the need for time-consuming and troublesome lawn edging, saving homeowners additional time and money. Third, concrete landscape borders provide an excellent and impenetrable barrier that prevents weeds, grass, flowers, or the like located in one area from growing into an adjoining area. Fourth, concrete landscape borders are extremely durable in all weather conditions and require minimal maintenance. Additionally, the expansion allowance described above ensures that the concrete landscape border will survive the extreme temperature fluctuations of certain climates. For all of these reasons, landscape border forming apparatus 10 and the methods of using landscape border forming apparatus 10 far exceed anything currently commercially available in both ease of use and cost-effectiveness.
It will be obvious to those having skill in the art that many changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the invention. The scope of the present invention should, therefore, be determined only by the following claims.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/514,942, filed Oct. 27, 2003.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60514942 | Oct 2003 | US |
