Every year about this time, when the garden is planted, the flowerpots are blooming merrily and I’m caught up with weeding, I get the urge to “do something with bricks.” The itch intensifies when the Sunday Menards ad proclaims a sale on bricks at 4/$1.
There are many places in a typical yard or garden where stone or brick can add a finished look to the landscaping. My yard came with a stone retaining wall protecting the walk-out basement and a matching stone raised flowerbed on two sides of the utility shed. In the 16 years that we’ve lived here, tons of stones and bricks have been imported to our acre.
A flagstone path now leads from the back door of the garage to the two sets of deck stairs. That path is edged in brick laid level with the ground to present a neat edge and provide a level place for the lawn mower wheel. We also laid a curved line of ground-level brick along the flowerbed that runs the length of the front of the house and another bed on the opposite side of the driveway that leads around the side of the garage. This is an unobtrusive way to keep the lawn and flowerbeds in their respective places.
Several years ago we built a pond in the backyard – the ultimate fun with rock. Though the pond isn’t overly large, we used a tremendous amount and variety of rock. Some of the smaller colored river rock was purchased; some rock was scavenged from farm fields soon to become subdivisions, and some was piled behind our neighbor’s garage for several years before I tactfully asked if they’d like me to take it off their hands.
We searched a long time to find the perfect bench for next to the pond and finally settled on a concrete one cast to look like a slab of stone atop two piled stone legs. The bench is extremely heavy and needed a strong level base. About that time, the chimney needed replacing on my late father-in-law’s home and I was the lucky recipient of some of the old bricks. Laid on a bed of gravel screenings and sand and framed by old cedar fence boards, the bricks make a lovely and meaningful setting for the bench.
Just inside my vegetable garden gate, I’ve laid a narrow path of bricks leading to the wood-chipped paths around three raised beds. Even when the ground is saturated, I can always get into one end of my garden to weed or harvest.
In the utility shed I have several five-gallon buckets of various sizes of leftover rocks and in the side yard is a pile of larger rocks. Last fall my 97 year old grandpa died, leaving about 20 bricks of various designs and colors in his garage and basement. I don’t know what he was saving them for, but now they’re waiting for new life in my garage. I have no plans for them yet, but I’ll think of something!
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