Brick Laying , oh yeah.

Even though we only have 3 weeks til school starts up again there is still enough time to get something done outside.

Remember when we built the brick Bar BQ ...oh we just jumped into that one..but I'm happy to say - the Bar BQ is still standing and offering some great ribs lately!!! Well as usual, with any project, I had some materials left over from that. Probably something around 50 bricks or so, just sitting around. 

I HAD to do something with them!!! So I decided to finally give my backyard gardens a more permanent boarder.

When I first broke ground on my gardens I put that plastic border around them. Its worked for a couple of years and probably could many more. However, the one thing I do not like about them is when hubby weed whacks - he gets all types of grass and weed roots in my pretty little gardens. He like a crazy man with that whacker. That does not make me happy.

right side of the garden with old plastic boarder.

So the best thing to do was to make a brick boarder for my gardens! If we can build that Bar BQ then this is nothing!!! Really!! Brick laying isn't as hard or impossible as one might think.
I will say that it does take time to execute and it can be a bit messy but the results are sooo worth it!
Make sure you have good weather, you do not want it to rain on your wet cement and gather these things.

So Step 1 - open your bag of Quikrete into your large mixing tray and add water from the hose - use the hoe to mix everything around until .....

it has the consistency of sloppy mud. Not to watery and not to thick. Like cookie dough.

OK - now that your mortar is ready - lets go over to the area I'm working at. You can see below I have already done about half of my row. And please take note of the dirt Channle I made to. That is just leveled out dirt which was then packed down very well. I don't want my wall sinking!

So lets get to it - here is what I did -
 ( disclaimer - I am NO professional brick layer by any means & this is my method which seems to work fine for me and my family)
First I layed down some Quikcrete on the packed dirt channel.....

Like so.

Then I pick up my brick and "butter" the side of it. Think of your Quickrete like its glue - well really it is!!  Can you guess the next step???

Yup - lay your brick down!!  Did someone say this is hard??? I think they lied, big time!!!

OK NOW STOP!!!!!! At this point you want to make sure that your brick is level both horizontal and vertically. You might want to have a level at hand but since I'm such a gangster, I did it by eye. I used my flat spade shovel to tap my bricks each way to get it just right. When you have your brick where you want it then ....

...."butter" the top of your brick for the second layer. TIP: the more EVEN you lay out your mortar the less you will have to fudge and mess with your bricks to keep them level. For instance don't put down a big "gloop" of mortar on one end and a thin layer on the other end.

"butter" the end of your brick again...and lay it down.

tap until the brick is level both vertically and horizontal again and keep going until you are done with your row.

Like so!!!

Its a bit of work and its a bit messy - but I try to look at it as I'm loosing calories..lol

So that's one side done!!!
Maybe next weekend I'll do the other side of the garden. My muscles need to rest.

What do you think???
I like it a lot better than the plastic boarder.

What do you use for a garden boarder - if you you use one at all?
And what do you think about brick laying?? I hope I took some of the mystery out of it for you. While I'm sure there is a lot more that goes into it for building houses and structures with brick - you gotta admit   its not that hard!!
I hope you'll give it a try!