Brick Edging For the Lawn

After

Before (Sod had already been removed.)

I'm in the midst of a huge (for me) landscaping project.  We grew up in Arizona and are not lawn people.  We just aren't that great with the upkeep and didn't get that gene passed down to us.  We never had lawns growing up!  But we have a tiny front patch, and a fairly small back lawn.  In the past ten years, the lawn had grown lumpy-bumpy and uneven.  It was full of weeds (that kept reseeding and spreading like crazy).  I HATED it and for several years have considered having it ripped out so we could start fresh.

This summer I did just that.  I hired a couple guys to rip it out and replace it with lush grass.  On a flat surface.  That was the easy part.  I simply wrote a check and a week later I had a new lawn!

The hard part was the second step.  I've always wanted some kind of barrier between the lawn and the garden...to help keep the lawn on its side.  What I liked best was a flat brick border.  But that meant digging a trench around the lawn, laying down sand, and putting it in brick by brick.

In early June we had 4 solid days of rain and the ground was perfect for digging.  I hired the neighborhood boys to come and dig out a trench.  The best $30 I ever spent.  I thought it was a bargain...their mom thought it was too much.  So now that the trench was ready,  I bought the sand and bricks.


I put down the first 30 bricks and was cruising along when an injury set in...lateral epicondylitis, or tennis elbow.  (The injury was from a car accident at the end of May when I gripped the steering wheel with all my might.)  With 70% of the yard left to do, I thought it would never get done.  I thought about hiring someone to finish the job, but Brian got out there yesterday, and put down another 30 bricks.  I figure we're about 65% done...whohoo!!

Newspaper and boxes covering stray grass

Once we had a nice stretch of brick edging in place, I started to put down newspaper on the garden side, to smother the stray grass/weeds.  For the past couple weeks, as soon as we're finished with the newspaper, I've been taking it outside as a method of passive weeding.  The newspaper smothers the weeds and  breaks down naturally. 

Compost

Yesterday I got so excited that some areas were sooooooo close to completion.  All they needed was some good soil smoothed out on top of the newspaper.  Thankfully, I happened to have an entire bin full of completed compost!  So I started filling one little bucket at a time and pouring it on top of the newspaper. I did a small section yesterday, and then finished a bit more today.  The end result...WOW!!  I absolutely LOVE the border and can't wait until the rest is in place.  I'm hoping the small completed section will be motivation to finish up the rest of the project.  I can't wait!!

LOVE!