.JPG "Brick Border Around Flower Bed")
Brick borders between flower beds and the lawn can go a long way in making a wild jungle look intentional. I have quite the "English Garden". Meaning I over-fill my beds and love when my flowers run into each other and fill the space. The only drawback is that this can make my garden look wild, and run into the lawn. My solution: Put in a Brick Border.
I only had a few hours and a few dollars so I went with one brick's width around the whole bed. With more bucks you can add width and more of a design, but the same steps apply.
To start, I cut into my lawn all the way around. You can use an edging tool, but my shovel did a great job. This cut line is the path you are going to follow for all the other steps. TIP: Some people use garden hoses to make a nice curve, I drove the curve with my lawn mower before settling on the line I wanted. Beautiful curve and easy to mow.
Once you have the line you want, dig out a trench about a half an inch deeper than the bricks and about a half an inch wider on each side. Try and get the trench as even with depth and consistent with width as possible. This is the part that takes the most work.
After the trench, I laid down about a half an inch of sand. I'm sure there is fancy sand you are supposed to use, but playground sand was on-sale at the time, so that's what I put in. Take the time to even our the sand and make you trench level. If you have bumps, you'll have bumps in your border.
Now comes the fun part - laying down the brinks. If you've been paying attention to your trench height and width, this should do pretty quickly and is the most satisfying. You really see you border take shape. I left about 1/4 of an inch between bricks.
The last step is filling in any holes. I started filling in big gaps between my bricks and the yard with a little dirt from when I dug our the trench. For the small gaps and between all the brick I used more sand. This keeps everything draining well. TIP: Use a broom to sweep the sand into all the cracks. I kept packing it in and then adding more.
The very last thing I did was rinse off the path with a light sprinkle of the hose. That washed off all the left over sand and dirt and left everything looking great.
That's all there is to it. I think grand total was under $50 bucks and the path looks perfect. All my wild and reckless plants are in their place and the yard is easy to mow and keep separate from the flowers.
Once you have the line you want, dig out a trench about a half an inch deeper than the bricks and about a half an inch wider on each side. Try and get the trench as even with depth and consistent with width as possible. This is the part that takes the most work.
After the trench, I laid down about a half an inch of sand. I'm sure there is fancy sand you are supposed to use, but playground sand was on-sale at the time, so that's what I put in. Take the time to even our the sand and make you trench level. If you have bumps, you'll have bumps in your border.
Bernadette was a big help in patting down the sand. I think it was her favorite part.
Now comes the fun part - laying down the brinks. If you've been paying attention to your trench height and width, this should do pretty quickly and is the most satisfying. You really see you border take shape. I left about 1/4 of an inch between bricks.
The last step is filling in any holes. I started filling in big gaps between my bricks and the yard with a little dirt from when I dug our the trench. For the small gaps and between all the brick I used more sand. This keeps everything draining well. TIP: Use a broom to sweep the sand into all the cracks. I kept packing it in and then adding more.
The very last thing I did was rinse off the path with a light sprinkle of the hose. That washed off all the left over sand and dirt and left everything looking great.
That's all there is to it. I think grand total was under $50 bucks and the path looks perfect. All my wild and reckless plants are in their place and the yard is easy to mow and keep separate from the flowers.
