The use of brick as a landscaping tool is only limited by the imagination of the designer. The use of brick in your landscape design can transform an unfinished garden into a tailored and groomed garden. Landscaping encompasses more than just your garden. It also includes the living spaces where your family gathers for meals and playtime in the backyard. Using brick to enhance your landscape will add a polished look to your landscape, blending patio and deck areas with the gardens. Does this Spark an idea?
Edging
Gardeners traditionally use edging bricks to outline the garden. This creates a finished look to the garden and helps keep mulch inside the garden. However, bricks can be placed in many more ways than simply on an edge. Try digging a shallow trench and tipping the bricks on end with one pointed edge pointed up. Stack the bricks one after another to benefit from the unique zigzag look created by this landscaping design.
No one ever said the edge of your garden needed a raised edging. Consider purchasing brick pavers to create a flat edge to the garden. Dig a wide, flat recessed area around the edge of your garden. Place the bricks or pavers flat on the ground side by side in a vertical pattern to delineate the garden's edge. Try placing two bricks horizontally, then two bricks vertically, etc., to create a unique looking pattern to your edging.
Pathways Through the Garden
Most gardens divide the closed in space of a home from the expanse of a yard or swimming pool area. There's no better way to enjoy your garden that by creating a brick pathway right through the middle of your plantings, especially one that leads to a decorative bench seating area. This pathway can be wide or narrow, straight or meandering. Create intricate designs that you repeat with the bricks throughout the pathway. Brick walkways don't need to be continuous. You can easily create stepping stones out of flat bricks allowing a foot of space between each grouping.
Retaining Walls and Terraces
Landscaping bricks come in a variety of colors and sizes. Choices should complement your exterior home colors and the overall decorating color scheme of your yard. Creating a retaining wall involves a little more work than edging or a walkway. However, you can create usable space from a slope or hillside by constructing a retaining wall. Space bricks with gaps in a pattern, add different color bricks for an interesting design or stack the bricks closely together to create the wall. A retaining wall doesn't need to be many feet high. It can involve simply two layers of bricks to delineate a section of a garden.
Creating a terrace or a raised section of a garden adds visual interest to your garden. Make a mini-garden within your larger garden by creating a fixed shape or free form terraced area using bricks. Level the area and start stacking bricks. Fill in with well-prepared soil and plant your showcase plants. Add mortar as you stack the plants to create a sturdy and long lasting garden terrace.
