How To Install Brick Garden Borders…The Easy Way!

Updated 3.27.20

I’m going to show you how I… well, actually, Hubby and I installed this brick border,
the EASY way!!

I went to Home Depot to purchase a skid of bricks!



I wasn’t sure I was going to make it home with that skid of bricks, they were insanely heavy! But lo and behold I did! They were on sale for $.25 each! I just couldn’t pass up that kind of deal.

I want to do brick borders around all of my gardens.



Now, this isn’t even the half of it…we have a backyard, a side yard and a few others here and there. I see a LOT of brick laying in my future. 😅

Hubby helped me with the first one, he’s had quite a bit of experience with concrete. Back in the day, he drove a cement mixer for a living.

The front light post seemed like a good place to start, with a simple 36” ring.

I searched and searched the internet for the easiest way to lay bricks. I really didn’t want to mix a bunch of wet concrete.  That just seemed like a TON of work and believe me I’ve already put in a TON of work digging! Our dirt is hard clay and rocks. I felt like I was digging in a rock quarry.

So, Hubby and I decided to lay the bricks dry. We felt that would be the easiest way. And it WAS!!😍

Let me explain the process... First, I would dig a trench where I wanted the border, then clean out the extra dirt.

Next, we shoveled in dry concrete mix. It was about 3" thick in some areas, maybe more in others.  We used the concrete to fill in the gaps.

Let me tell you, those 80 lb. bags of concrete are not light! Poor Hubby’s back has been on the fritz, so I slid those bags from the work van into a wheelbarrow. Worked like a charm! 👍

So, we’d shovel in a bunch of concrete, smooth it out, then measure.



Hubby gave me a great tip! Always measure the corners, that way your bricks will be circular and the gaps between will be even. We tied a string to the center light post and used that to go around and measure each brick.

You can see it better in this picture.

Just look at the progress we’re making!!

While you are measuring and placing bricks, you want to make sure that the bricks are level.

Now, we weren’t actually using the leveling bubble, because we were dealing with the slope of the yard as well. We just wanted them to be even with each other and the grass level. So when a brick was off we'd shovel a little more concrete under one corner or the other, or under the whole brick. It's a process with each brick.

Then we started back filling the outer edge. This ring will be needing some grass seed complete it.

Then on the inside of the ring, we filled in with a bit more dry concrete and stones here and there.

Hubby and I were crossing our fingers this was going to work using dry concrete.

A storm was coming, so we backfilled the inside of the circle with dirt as well.  There is too much dirt in this ring, so I’ll be removing some before we plant and mulch this garden.

Make sure you brush off the dirt and any cement powder. Cement powder will make the bricks look gray, if it dries on them.

Lastly, we wet the garden border. Yeah, we knew a storm was coming, but we still wanted to wet it down. If a storm wasn't coming, we'd be making sure it was nice and damp. Possibly wetting it down the next day as well. We want that concrete to be rock hard!

It’s been about 4 days since we did this job. I’ve already tried to wiggle those bricks… They aren’t going ANYWHERE! It worked beautifully. Now time to start another one!! 😊

And that’s how you lay bricks the easy way!!



I planted some petunias, can't wait to see them fill in!

Here is the brick garden ring months later!  They still are holding up great!

One to pin for later!

Blessings!

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