Concrete Flower Bed Borders

We love concrete, can't help it. There are so many options, you can do just about anything you want. Our last house had exposed aggregate borders for the flowerbeds, this time we opted for wider (and deeper since they'll probably get driven on at some point) and then we stamped and stained them. Here's a look into our process. 

When we bought the property there was a rock driveway that just died about halfway across the land. We added a circle drive once the house was done and of course, began working on the landscaping. Above is the island that we plan to border with a concrete edge.

We framed it up in stages. We had lots of pours going on for patios and the like so we would try to do a portion of the island when we had a need for concrete already. The red you see is a stamp liner so the portion you'll see will have a decorative edge.

This was my job through the pouring process. Nice! I have shoveled and pulled concrete before, mimally and it's really difficult (that stuffs heavy) plus I stink at it. Just not strong enough. This is the perfect job for me!

We did do a little edging (not shown) and we will be stamping.

Jason is off finishing whatever pour that coincided with this one and I'm left to get it stamped.

Here it is. The darker area with the framing is the most recent pour. We've already removed framing on other sections that were done earlier.

Got it stained. I used saw dust and coffee grounds to get the color effect and sprayed it with stain. I used two colors. I can't remember the main color (a dark brown) and then spritzed it with some black.

We got the border poured within a summer's time but the rest of the island, from the first picture to this one was year's in the making. It has really filled in nicely.

Have you done any interesting flower borders in your yard?