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Originally Posted by DIY Novice
We've bought a house where the garden is a bit of a jungle and I'm
planning to clean it up and have a lawn surrounded by flower beds on 3
sides with bricks as an edging between the lawn and beds.
The garden is rectangular approx 29 feet by 19 feet.
Should I put the bricks length ways or width ways?
I'm worried if I put them width ways that it'll look like a 9 inch
path around the lawn and may dominate such a small garden but my
girlfriend says the flowers and grass will grow over the edges and
they won't be so obvious. Any suggestions?
What do I bed the bricks on , simply lay them on the soil or should I
create a sand or mortar base?
Also for a small garden of this size what width should the flower beds
be? We were thinking about 3 feet wide which should be enough for some
shrubs 3-6 feet high and climbers close to the fence with some bedding
plants at the front.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
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Ok point one i'd make is about the jungle. There IS some basic tips I can give withoout seeing the garden.
1) Do not ever hack off limbs. bye that I mean leaving stubs of limbs, anything you prune you should take back to the 'collar', the area at the base of the limb you're going to prune off. Start at the base and work your way up, expose trunks, thety are beautiful take off anything that looks weak, dead or unhealthy, if you prune this way you'll be surprised at how much light you'll let in. And you wont have a garden that looks bloody awful for the next six months and then leaves you back where you started.
2) don't let plants invade each others space if trees or bushes grow into each other seperate them with some judicious pruning. The key to an attractive garden is the same as an attractive body, 'definition'.
3) Do you really really need a lawn? They are high maintenance areas and are best described as 'green deserts'. Garden beds seperated by paths, which even in a small garden should not be narrow, are far more interesting for adults children and pets. Paths should be at least 1metre wide.
If you feel you MUSt have a lawn, bricks will not keep the grass out. that makes no difference if they are placed width or length ways. Neither for that matter will concrete kerbing or anything else. Gardens can really soak up money, dont spend what you dont have to. The edge of the lawn is best as path. this can be sawdust. If you have a metre wide strip around the lawn you'll be able to see the grass encroaching. If you dont want to do this then a simple edge is fine. a sharply cut edge to the grass and a furrow along the garden bed side. Done well grass can be trained to not cross it. (This is a BIG lie, but relatively speaking you can believe it ;-). The trouble with Bricks is that the grass will grow through it and when you weed it just makes more work. Concrete kerbing is worse, because it cant be moved it simply protects grass roots which wil sprout as soon asyou tear off what's on the other side.
Try to keep like with like in your garden, keep plants with similar foliage but get contrast with different colours of foliage, dont worry about flowers, if it doesn't have a nice flower nurseries wont stock it, but they are temporary, foliage is all year.
It's like in the house, the big things are, ideally in the same style, The wardrobe matches the bed, The dinner table matches the sideboard. And on the mantle piece the little things can be eclectic.
Hope that helps :-)
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