A trench is easiest and most effective. If you make a nice vertical cut like this all around your garden, and let the soil on the garden side gradually slope back up again to ground level, the grass roots will have nowhere to spread. Redo the edging once every spring and maybe once later in summer if you're a perfectionist, and that's it.
The black plastic edging stuff isn't worth it. It's a pain to install properly, it often heaves from frost, and you'll still have to pull up grass that jumps over it here and there. Not including installation, you'll probably spend the same amount of time keeping grass out of your garden as if you just re-cut the edge every spring. Plus, moving the plastic edging is a pain if you want to change the shape of your garden bed and finally... it's plastic in the garden! Who needs it?
A brick or rock border looks nice, so go for it if you want, but keep in mind it will not be low maintenance. The grass is going to keep spreading into the cracks between the bricks and it's even harder to pull out once it's in there. And again there's the problem of changing the shape of your bed.
Seriously. Cut a trench once a year and you'll be happy!
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