What plant to use instead of hard lawn edging?

colm56rWaxvV

This summer (2020) I saw a GW segment on lawn care & making edging simple without using edgers, or solid wood/metal barriers, etc, but can't find it on iplayer. The presenter mentioned a plant he used for the lawn/border divide that could easily be mowed like grass. I'd like to try that on my lawn.

JennyJ

I seem to recall it was one of the hardy geraniums, but I could easily be mis-remembering. I wouldn't mow them myself, and it wouldn't do the grass any good to have plants flopping over it.

Wayside

DELETED BY ME.

Raboon

JennyJ, you're quite right it was Rozanne.

Here's the clip https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08lk4lg

colm56rWaxvV

JennyJ said:

I seem to recall it was one of the hardy geraniums, but I could easily be mis-remembering. I wouldn't mow them myself, and it wouldn't do the grass any good to have plants flopping over it.

Thank you. Not so worried about mowing them or the grass.

colm56rWaxvV

Raboon said:

JennyJ, you're quite right it was Rozanne.

Here's the clip https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08lk4lg

That's it. Thank you so much.

Posy

A word of caution: my OH does the grass cutting and he HATES plants flopping onto the grass. If you just cut the lot the edging plants look awful.

Robmarston

It was definitely geranium. I’ve planted some this autumn coz I’m going to try it out next year. 

Fairygirl

I'm finding this quite difficult to understand. It never looks great if plants are continually being mowed at the edges.
I have a low growing geranium which edges part of my front grass [bio-kovo ] and the mower catches it, which isn't a huge problem because it's so low, but anything taller, would look pretty awful IMO. The other plants have supports to keep them clear of the mower, and I have a timber edge as well of fence posts, pegged in,  which is a cheap, easy solution for a small border. 
What's the reason for not putting in a proper edge? 

JoeX

Looks great in the clip.  Why bother with hard edging?

Fairygirl

Bet it looks pretty dreadful after three days of rain... 
I love how the solutions to something will only suit certain places and conditions. As @JennyJ says - no good for the grass, and @philippasmith2 says - you'll get them mixing with each other. @Posy's husband has also highlighted the major problem with anything of any height.
The two things don't work together unless it's always dry, and the plants all grow perfectly upright so that you can access the grass edges properly. Otherwise, you'd have to accept that it'll look very messy a lot of the time, which is fine if that doesn't bother you.