Installed this at my church's mission house with not much problem. The ground needs to be fairly level - no large bumps - in order for it not to cause odd bends. Where I ran into issues with bumps, I used a pick to level the ground. The stakes work well if you have soil that is atleast somewhat soft and deep enough for the spikes. You can cut tge spikes if necessary but they won't hold as well. You need to hit the stake heads pretty much straight or a head may break off when you get to the last 1 or 2 blows - I only broke 1 stake head when putting out 2 borders. I did not use all of the stakes and the border is holding up well - I staked about every 10 inches except for places where it looked like I needed more.