🖼️
The project:
I wanted to add a flower bed around our street tree.
Our house came with a small stack of bricks which I'd saved for a project and this was the perfect one!
- Materials:
From Bunnings:
1 bag brikkies sand
1 bag westbuild cream mortar
- Red bricks from our own 'stash'
- Spray paint from our own stash
- Tools:
- Step 1:
Mark out the area using spray paint, I used a string line attached to the tree to give me a rough circle.
- Step 2:
Layout the bricks to see how many you'll need or if you have enough! Try to fit all whole bricks so that you won't have to cut any. Move them out of the way and dig a trench.
Depending which edge you put your bricks on will decide how deep the trench needs to be.
Leave about 30mm above ground so you have a good edge to trim the lawn up against!
- Step 3:
Spread a thin layer of brickies sand in the trench and level it off. If the ground is even you can use a string line, level etc. Our ground is very uneven so I worked 'by eye' for a result that looked ok as a level bed on uneven ground would have looked terrible.
- Step 4:
Mix Your mortar in a small bucket. It's fussy work and it dries out in about 30 mins so mix small batches as you'll be slow while you get the hang of it. It should be the consistency of muffin batter.
Place the first brick with no mortar, pick up your next brick and using a small trowel, apply the mortar to it about 2 inches thick on the edge that will touch the first brick. Place the mortared brick and tap it into place.
Continue until you reach your last brick.
- Step 5:
The last brick is the trickiest as it has to fit exactly and you need to mortar two edges.
(Hopefully all those other bricks mean you're a bit more skilled by now!)
Brush the joins gently to knock off any excess and tidy the finish.
Allow to dry for 24 hrs before adding dirt, doing further work etc.
