DIY Curb Appeal with a Quick Flower Bed Border

Quick Weekend Stone Border Project for Your Flower Beds

I love pulling up to the house and being happy just looking at it. Unfortunately, our front needed a big pick-me-up. The side flowerbed had fallen into disarray. The wood that used to hold the dirt in had rotted and last fall's leaves still covered up what was trying to grow. It was time to make a change.

First thing was to measure the length of the bed. I wasn't prepared to spend a fortune on this project so scoping out the cost of materials ahead of time was vital. In my case, I had 21 feet of flowerbed edge.

Next was pricing out my border options to make sure this fit my $100 budget. Good news, concrete garden wall blocks at Home Depot are a foot long and relatively cheap. When I looked they were about $1.80, not to shabby. Knowing I had 21 feet and that I wanted to go 2 blocks high I went for 44 bricks. (It's always nice to have some wiggle room.) Throw in a few bags of paver sand, several bags of top soil (this bed was severely lacking dirt) and some manure for the roses I planned to throw in the bed and I estimated right around $100, the magic number.

Home Depot doesn't always have the most hands-on help, but don't be afraid to ask someone in the garden center to help you load 500lbs of stone onto the trailer or into the back seat. Believe me, it's to much to want to do in on your own. I brought my husband and our light trailer and we still asked for a hand. You can see, between the rock and the dirt we needed it.

Now the work begins. Removing the old wall was easy. Like I mentioned, most of the wood had rotted out anyway. Once that quick step was through I took my flat ended (Transfer Style) shovel and started making my trench. This type of shovel works best if you aren't needing to dig in, but rather, move things around. In this case, I was scooting gravel out of the way and pulling a bit of dirt up and onto the flower bed. I found that my transfer shovel was the exact width I needed for the stone so it made a great guide.

After I had a shallow trench the width of the stone and the whole length of the bed, I started leveling everything with a layer of sand. Paver sand is nice and coarse so you get an easy to level surface with wonderful drainage.

Once my trench was sandy and level, I started placing stone. Layer 1 is what took the most amount of time. Take the care to get your line straight and to space the stones in the best way possible. Each stone was about 20lbs and once you place level 2 you are't going to want to move anything. Finishing this path was tricky. It took about 3 tries to get the edge to finish exactly where I wanted. In my case I needed to make a bit more room so played with the curve of the bed. The shape of these stones makes it fairly simple to add or takeaway space.

Layer 2 follows right on top of 1 with a brick pattern. It goes much faster than layer 1. I was blown away by how much progress you feel like you're making with level 2. Before you know it, all your bricks are set and you can see what the finished product will look like.

Once the heavy lifting was done, I stirred in my new dirt and manure and moved some long over-crowded plants into my new bed. Filled in the gravel that I had moved at the beginning, gave everything a good watering, and was done in less than 3 hours. If you have a second pair of hands I'm sure you could do it in 2.

This quick garden project was just what I needed to brighten up the driveway and bring a big sense of accomplishment to my weekend. It's given the house a mini face-lift and was relatively easy.

Putting a Brick Border Around Flower Beds

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.

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.