Brick Raised Garden Bed Ideas – The sweetest smell of my childhood came from my grandmother’s garden on Tyneside. Fragrant sweet peas, marigolds, the vaguely spicy scent of tomato leaves mixed with paraffin in the greenhouse. We’re there every summer, and it’s my job to pick sweet peas – in their most beautiful colors of pink, purple and white. Back home in my parents’ garden in Yorkshire, I remember the scent of the red, orange and yellow roses my father grew and the warm smell of the rich soil in my little garden I used to tend. There is a small round mirror for the pond, paved with pebbles. We are a National Trust family and spend many happy weeks exploring the great local gardens – Harlow Carr, Newby Hall and Harwick Hall. I loved the kitchen garden, wandering through the raised beds and neat privet hedges, imagining myself as the great lady of the charter (actually I was the best housekeeper!). Growing things is in my blood, but after having a baby, the thought of having one more thing to take care of, even if it’s just a few seeds or herbs in the kitchen window shop, feels overwhelming.
When the back of the house fell down, I ordered the builders to collect all the old bricks and put them in the garden. Even half-broken bricks are saved on the basis that they will “use for something” (builders are not very sure about this last point). My plan is to build a bed with them – several courses of high bricks; Enough to keep the plants in and the dogs in. If there are bricks left over from this effort, we will use them to build a high wall at the end of the garden and make a little road.
Brick Raised Garden Bed Ideas
Those bricks sat on the floor in our garden for over three years, hidden behind some unsightly bushes. During this time, our 3rd daughter didn’t sleep for 2 years, I quit one job and started a new one, we installed a new kitchen, completely remodeled the downstairs (including painting and repainting all the floors), and remodeled our family bathroom. , the hall and garage were stripped of wallpaper, painted yellow, wood cut, framed, and hung with dozens of precious photos and pictures taken over the years.
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Every time I go out into the garden, I think, “I wish I had time to put a raised bed.” If I go out to the garden at least a thousand times a year, I think about the lack of a bed again and again. One of the key tricks in DIY solutions with kids is to accept that the project will take some time to complete, and some projects may take years before you even get started. It is pointless or useless to complain about it. Rather, focus on doing what you can to embrace that grubby wallpaper, or tired old wood, or dirty brick chippings in the garden, and hope that your long-awaited project will come to fruition. .
Our theme for 2019 is “Nurtification”, which means planting, which means raised beds. With 3 silly Jack Russells running all over the place, the average tree doesn’t stand a chance in our garden. A raised bed protects against furry feet (even the Penny Lady gets in on the act). I decided to set up the bed immediately in front of the deck, which is an unusual thing to do, to walk outside, get some mint for my mojito, some peonies for my waza, and then walk back into the house without having to walk. . Mud from the rest of the garden (we don’t have good drainage so a little rain turns the ground into a puddle). I also like to incorporate a raised bed structure as a fence that spans the entire width of the garden (to keep the dogs and their gold suits off the lawn) and a broken fence with brick and decorative lines. less so than giant pickets.
We built four large beds in six months, one last fall and three this year, which is lightning fast progress by our standards.
We used a sharp brick from our old bay window to create a slightly rounded hexagon above the bed.
Raised Bed Garden Ideas
There are plenty of professional brick raised bed building guides out there, so I’ll share a quick rundown of how we tackled ours to show you that two hobbyists can produce some very powerful results in a short amount of time. Providing complete step-by-step instructions instead of time and elbow grease.
I created a pattern with bricks to see what size bed I needed and what space each bed would fit.
I modified the design to include four vertical beds, horizontal at each end.
I used a laser level to line up the first bed with the deck, nailed it with rope, and then dug out a nice rectangle of grass that I wanted for the main bed. I filled this with MOT and sharp sand (both of which were lying around the yard from the construction site), leveled it on each side and side to side, and leveled the floor, soul level and. Funny. When one side is higher than the other, I remove the MOT and mix in temporary sand to dig further, or add MOT to increase the height.
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Adjusting the level of the raised bed from side to side. Maybe a little basic method 🙂 but good enough for our purposes.
Neither of us had ever made bricks before, but we loved making things, so we did. We mix the mortar using cement powder, sharp sand and water, all mixed with a special attachment for our electric drill.
I put some mortar on the base of the MOT, put a brick on top, checked with a level and tapped on the magnet. Then I grouted the end of the other brick again, sanded it with the first brick (still in mortar), leveled it again, and tapped it.
We have placed the bricks in the right place to keep them in a straight line. Also, watch out for the sneaky tennis ball and the ball-obsessed runner.
Raised Bed Gardens
It sounds very easy, and it is possible. We quickly got into the flow of the work: I selected, painted, leveled, and tapped the bricks while my husband mixed the mortar, followed my organization, and pointed the bricks (you can. a tool for this, but a rigger in a thumbtack works perfectly). What slows us down: bricks are in different states of confusion and at different heights, so it takes a long time to find the right one among the mounds in the garden; Every ten seconds you have to throw the ball to Enrique; Three girls who want to help; pouring rain; poor lighting; Cold weather (I’m only willing to put bricks in the cold for three hours before throwing in the towel, which, while a solid time commitment, isn’t enough to finish one bed, especially considering all the speed. – The reduction factor) .
There are four beds in place and it’s time to fill them. I ordered several tons of soil with organic fertilizer, which was brought to the car in bags with a remote control crane. Then we took the bike back and carefully lowered it onto the bed. (Previously, with the help of my six-year-old son, who thought that robbers lived in our house, I dug the bottom of the bed and removed the roots and stones, so he may have buried the treasure.)
Digging after work with my faithful friend. It looks like I’m whipping a rabbit’s tail, but it’s actually from sitting on white oil recently 🙂
So far, I’ve planted the long awaited David Austin roses along with peonies, sage, mint and thyme. I also put strawberry plants in pots, but I need to build a new bed for them because the flowers are cut all over the room. I have carrots, spinach, cosmos and sunflowers grown from seed at home, as well as Dahlia bulbs in pots. Meanwhile, my parents are growing cherry tomatoes and sweet berries for us – and thought they’d kill God and plant potatoes. I don’t think I can finish it