Landscape Spikes: Which Ones Hold Paver Edging and Bed Borders in Wichita Clay

Landscape spikes are the cheapest part of any edge: a few dollars of steel holding the line between a patio and the lawn, or a planting bed and the grass. They are also the part that gets blamed when the edge goes wrong. Walk any Wichita neighborhood in March and you will see it — paver edging standing proud of the ground, spikes half out of their holes, a bed border leaning into the lawn after its first winter.

Sometimes the spike really was the wrong one. More often, in our clay, the spike was fine and the ground around it moved. This guide covers both: which spikes and stakes to buy for paver edging, bed borders, landscape fabric and timbers; what length, material and spacing hold up through a Kansas freeze-thaw season that is starting about now; and how to tell, when an edge heaves, whether the problem is the spike or the base under the patio or walk it is meant to hold.

What landscape spikes are, and the five jobs they do

“Landscape spike” covers several different pieces of hardware sold in the same aisle. They are not interchangeable, and most of the failures we see start with the right edging held down by the wrong spike.

• Paver edging spikes are plain steel nails, usually about three-eighths of an inch thick and eight to twelve inches long, driven through the holes in plastic or aluminum paver edge restraint. They hold the outer edge of a patio, walk or driveway so the pavers cannot creep outward.
• Edging stakes are made for one particular metal edging profile — tapered steel or aluminum stakes that slide into slots or loops on the back of the edging. They hold bed borders between lawn and mulch or rock.
• Plastic edging anchors are ridged plastic or nylon spikes sold with coil (roll) edging and “no-dig” edging kits.
• Landscape fabric staples, also called sod staples or garden pins, are U-shaped wire pins that hold weed fabric flat before rock or mulch goes on top.
• Timber spikes and rebar stakes pin landscape timbers and railroad-tie borders to each other and to the ground.

Which landscape spikes to buy for each job

This is the short list, for a typical Wichita yard on clay. The numbers are common sizes and starting points; where an edging maker prints its own spacing or stake length, follow theirs.

Paver edging spikes

Ten inches is the standard length, and on a properly built patio it is enough, because the spike is going into compacted aggregate that does not want to let go. Twelve-inch spikes earn their extra cost where the base is thinner than it should be, where the ground beyond the patio is soft or often wet, and on curves, where the edging has fewer straight runs to brace itself. A spike shorter than eight inches has no business holding a paver edge in clay.

Stakes for metal bed edging

Aluminum and steel edging come with stakes designed for their profile, and those are the ones to use. Generic spikes driven beside the edging do not lock into it and let it lean. On our own beds we use black aluminum edging; it holds a crisp curve, does not rust and takes its stakes cleanly.

Spikes for plastic coil edging

The plastic anchors in a coil edging kit work in loose garden soil. In Wichita clay they tend to snap or curl on the way in, especially once the ground dries out in late summer. A box of eight- or ten-inch steel spikes costs little and solves it.

Fabric staples

Six-inch staples hold fabric in clay well; the thin four-inch kind pull out as soon as anyone walks on the bed. Overlap seams by several inches and pin through both layers, and pin every edge before the rock goes on, because wind gets under unpinned fabric while you are still spreading.

Timber and tie borders

Pin the first course to the ground with lengths of rebar driven through drilled holes, and pin each course above it to the one below with galvanized timber spikes. Drill the holes slightly smaller than the spike so it bites, and keep spikes a few inches back from the ends of each timber so the wood does not split.

Steel, galvanized or plastic: choosing the material

• Galvanized steel is the default for anything meant to stay. It resists rust and will not bleed orange onto light pavers or a concrete walk.
• Plain steel is cheaper and rusts in the ground. That rust roughens the surface and actually helps it grip clay, so plain spikes hold well — but keep them away from pale pavers, where rust can stain the surface at the edge.
• Plastic and nylon spikes do not rust and are easy to cut, which makes them fine for fabric and light edging in soft ground. They do not survive being driven into dry clay.
• Stainless steel is rarely worth the price for an edge you cannot see.

Smooth, ringed or spiral shank

A smooth spike holds by friction alone, and friction is exactly what a freeze-thaw winter works against. Ringed, barbed or spiral shanks hold the soil around them mechanically, so they resist being lifted out much better. If the store carries both, the ringed or spiral spike is the one to buy for paver edging. A flat head, or a head with a washer, also matters: it is what actually clamps the edging flange to the ground.

How Wichita clay changes the landscape spikes you need

Clay is not a bad soil for spikes. Driven into firm, moist clay, a steel spike grips hard — harder than in sandy soil. The trouble is that clay does not stay the way it was on the day the spike went in.

• It shrinks and swells. Clay takes on water and expands, then dries and shrinks, and in a dry August it opens cracks you can lose a pencil in. Every cycle loosens the soil around a spike a little.
• It is hard when dry and slick when wet. Driving a spike into baked summer clay bends it; driving one into saturated spring clay leaves it in a hole of mud that grips nothing.
• It holds water. Clay drains slowly, so the soil along an edge stays wet long after a rain — which is what feeds frost heave.

Freeze-thaw and frost jacking

A Wichita winter does not freeze once and stay frozen. It freezes and thaws over and over from late fall to early spring. Each time wet soil freezes, the water in it expands and lifts the ground, and anything gripped by that ground — a spike, an edging strip, the outer row of pavers — rises with it. When the soil thaws, it settles back, but the spike rarely settles all the way. Over a winter it can work itself up a surprising distance. That is frost jacking, and it is why edges look worst in March.

Two things resist it. Longer, ringed or barbed spikes give the soil more to hold on to. And dry ground heaves far less than wet ground, so an edge with water running away from it, not along it, stays put. That second point does more than any spike.

Driving spikes into hard clay

• Work when the ground is moist but not soggy. If it has been dry, soak the edge the evening before.
• Use a heavy hammer or small sledge, not a claw hammer, and keep the spike plumb. A spike driven at an angle holds less and pushes the edging sideways.
• If a spike stops hard, do not force it. Pull it and move an inch over. It may have hit a stone or a root — or a sprinkler line or lighting cable.
• Drive the head down flush onto the edging flange, then pack and tamp soil or base against both sides of the edging. The backfill holds as much as the spike does.

Paver edging: where the spike actually holds

On a patio or walkway, the edge restraint is what keeps the pavers locked together. Without it, they creep outward under foot traffic and the joints open, slowly at first and then all at once. The restraint is the plastic or aluminum edging; the spikes only hold the restraint in place. And where those spikes finish matters more than how long they are.

The compacted aggregate base under a patio should run out past the last row of pavers, so the edging sits directly on that base and the spikes go down through it. The bedding sand is cut back so the edging never sits on sand: spikes driven through loose sand hold nothing, and the sand washes out from under the edge in the first heavy rain. When the base stops at the paver line, the edging ends up spiked into bare clay, and clay that gets wet every time the patio sheds water is the weakest ground on the property. Our guide to how a hardscape gets built, and why the base decides everything walks through that sequence step by step.

Spacing on straight runs and curves

On straight runs, a spike roughly every foot is the common spacing. On curves, the edging is cut or flexed and loses stiffness, so use every hole. Always put a spike within a few inches of each end and on both sides of every joint between lengths of edging; joints are where edges open first. If you can push the top of the edging sideways with your boot after it is spiked, it needs more spikes or better backfill.

Other ways to restrain a paver edge

Spiked edging is the most common restraint, not the only one. A row of pavers set on end in concrete, a poured concrete curb, or the edge of an existing slab or wall can all hold a patio. Each one is heavier and costs more, and each still depends on what is underneath it. A thin wedge of concrete troweled against the outside of the last paver row is a common shortcut; in our freeze-thaw winters it tends to crack and break away within a few seasons.

Bed borders: spikes and stakes for edging that keeps its line

Bed edging carries far less load than a paver edge, but it lives in the wettest, most worked-over soil in the yard: watered with the plants, mowed against and trimmed beside every week. How it is set matters as much as what holds it.

• Trench it in. Cut a narrow trench along the bed line so most of the edging sits below grade, with just enough showing above the lawn to stop grass running into the bed. Edging laid on top of the ground and spiked down is pushed over by the first winter.
• Stake to the maker’s spacing, plus every joint. Two lengths that meet with one stake between them will separate.
• Backfill and tamp both sides. Pack soil firmly against the lawn side and the bed side so the edging is held along its whole length, not just at the stakes.
• Finish the bed just below the top. Mulch or rock should sit slightly below the top of the edging, so it stays in the bed and the mower wheel rides the lawn side.
• Keep water moving. A bed edge that dams the water running off a roof or a slope holds it in the soil around the stakes, which is where frost heave starts.

If the bed is going to be rock, fabric and edging work together: the fabric keeps the stone out of the clay and the edging keeps it out of the lawn. Our comparison of river rock and mulch in Wichita beds covers which belongs where, and why the edge does as much as the material.

Heaving edges: when the spike is not the problem

Every spring, homeowners re-spike edges that will be out again by the next spring, because the spike was never what failed. Before you buy a longer one, read what the edge is telling you.

The pattern is the same in every row but the first: the edge moves because the ground under it does, and the ground moves because of water or because the base was never built out past the edge. Our guide to reading a drainage problem in Wichita clay helps you work out where that water comes from. A patio or walkway that has heaved needs to be taken up and rebuilt from the base, with the base extended and the water sent somewhere else — which is why how we plan custom patios in Wichita starts with the property and the water, not the pavers.

A spring check for every edge

1. Wait until the ground has thawed and drained, usually some time in March.
2. Walk every edge and step on the outer row of pavers. Look for spikes that have lifted, edging that rocks, and pavers that move.
3. Tap lifted spikes back down while the soil is moist. Replace any that will not hold with a longer, ringed spike beside the old hole.
4. Mark anywhere the pavers themselves have dropped or rolled. Those are base or water problems, not spike problems.
5. Watch the same edges in the first heavy spring rain. Where water runs or sits is where next winter’s heave will be.

Before you drive a spike: what is already in the ground

A ten-inch spike sounds too short to hit anything, and it is not. Sprinkler lines, drip irrigation and low-voltage lighting cable are often buried only a few inches down, and they tend to run right along bed edges and patio borders — exactly where the spikes go. If you have a lighting or irrigation system, find out where its lines run before you start, and drive carefully where you are not sure. For rebar stakes and anything near where utilities enter the house, start with a free Kansas 811 locate request; a spike through a shallow gas or electric service line is not a weekend repair.

Landscape spikes: questions Wichita homeowners ask

What are landscape spikes used for?

They hold edging and borders in place: plastic paver edging along a patio or walk, metal or plastic edging around planting beds, landscape fabric under rock, and timber borders. The spike does not hold the edge up on its own — it pins the edging to the ground or base beneath it, and the soil packed on both sides does the rest.

How long should landscape spikes be for paver edging?

Ten-inch steel spikes are the usual size for plastic paver edging set on a compacted base. Step up to twelve inches where the base is thin, the ground is soft or the edge takes a lot of weight, and on tight curves. Whatever the length, the spike has to finish in compacted aggregate and firm soil, not in loose bedding sand.

How far apart should landscape spikes be?

For paver edging, roughly one spike every foot on straight runs — the spacing most edging makers print on the box — and one in every hole on curves and at each joint between lengths. Metal bed edging uses fewer, longer stakes, set every few feet and at every joint and end. Fabric staples go every few feet along each edge and seam.

Should landscape spikes be galvanized?

Galvanized steel lasts longest and will not stain pavers or concrete with rust. Plain steel spikes rust in the ground, and that roughened surface actually grips clay well, but the rust can bleed onto light pavers at the surface. Plastic spikes are fine for fabric and light coil edging in soft ground; they tend to snap in dry Wichita clay.

Can you reuse landscape spikes or drive them back into the same hole?

A straight spike can be reused, but not in its old hole — the clay around it is already loosened and will not grip. Drive it an inch or two to one side, or swap in a longer or ring-shank spike. A bent spike goes in the bin; straightening it weakens the steel and it will bend again in hard ground.

How do you drive spikes into hard clay?

Wait for moist ground, or soak the line the evening before; dry August clay bends spikes and wet March clay will not hold them. Use a heavy hammer rather than a claw hammer, keep the spike plumb and stop if it meets something solid. Move an inch over rather than forcing it, because the obstruction might be a stone, a root or a buried line.

Do landscape spikes hold in the Kansas freeze-thaw?

They hold best where the ground under them stays drained. Wet clay expands as it freezes and lifts whatever is in it, so a spike in a wet edge gets jacked up a little through the winter. Longer spikes with ringed or barbed shanks resist it, but the lasting fix is keeping water away from the edge — and pushing any lifted spikes back down once the ground thaws.

When is the best time to re-set edging in Wichita?

Fall, before the ground freezes, so the edge goes into winter tight, and again in spring once the ground has thawed and drained. Fall is also our busiest season for design and build work; we are typically booked out 2 to 4 weeks depending on the season.

The short version

1. Buy for the job: steel spikes for paver edging, the maker’s stakes for metal edging, six-inch staples for fabric.
2. Ten-inch galvanized spikes for paver edging, twelve where the ground is soft or the curve is tight; ringed or spiral shanks hold best.
3. Spike roughly every foot, in every hole on curves, and on both sides of every joint.
4. Drive into moist clay, keep spikes plumb, and backfill both sides of the edging.
5. Paver edging belongs on compacted base that runs out past the pavers, never on sand or bare clay.
6. If the pavers moved with the edging, the problem is the base or the water, not the spike.

Landscape spikes are worth getting right, and they are cheap enough to get right the first time. But if the patio or walkway they hold has started to roll, sink or heave, the fix is underneath. Book a consultation and we will look at the edge, the base and where the water goes, and tell you whether it needs a few new spikes or a rebuild. Our landscape design process plans patios, walks and beds together, so edges, drainage and planting are settled before anything is built. We design and build landscapes in Wichita and the surrounding communities of Andover, Derby, Maize and Goddard.