Laying a Charming Brick NON-Perfect Accent in Your GARDEN--DIY guide

Well here we are now, me and my Hercules, extending my small brick accent center in my garden further out. I want to eventually have a brick pathway leading out of the garden center, but I have to have enough old clay bricks to do that. Which I don't.

My son helped dig up the monkey grass and lambs ears that I transplanted, and then collected the brick from around the house and brought it over. While Maxine did this...

Fought with an old plastic plant container, she took it around the yard, threw it up in the air, watched it drop and caught it and ran herself dizzy.

You can see here we are extending the brick I already have, you will need to shovel the dirt as level as you can.Use a flat-head shovel to prep your area. If you are like my husband, you would get a level out, have sand ready, do it EXACTLY perfect. Or you can do it like me. I believe it is called eye-balling how level something is, or as my husband would say half-as++##!!** not-perfect, if you get my drift. NO CURSING on my blog though!! I call it charming, just like they did in the 1800's in Charleston, South Carolina. That is where I see so many im-perfect brick garden accents.

What I do is dig up, with a trowel or my husband's spackling tool,( a straight edge mortar trowel,)  the dirt to a level just above where the other brick is to meet. Bricks, rocks, pavers, etc., sink with time, so it needs to be a bit raised, maybe 1/2 ins. where it meets the other bricks. Smooth it straight to lay the brick.

Usually you have a pattern going, I started with this straight line of bricks, until I layed them all out and found out I had a basket-weave pattern, straight line in front of that,so I then wanted another basket-weave going behind me. Straight, basket-weave, straight, basket-weave ( about 2 feet each time). Dumb-bunny had to rip them up and start again. All the dirt in front of me has to be smoothed out, and then used to cover up the bricks as we go.

I like to tap( tap fairly hard) my bricks together , to tighten them up. I hit them at the top and sides.Everytime you lay one, you may have to add or take away dirt from the ground to level it. Keep tapping them to settle them.

And I have to deal with Maxine trying to kiss me while I am down here. The original center of this brick area, I laid out about 7 years ago.

I love the old clay bricks. The different colors are beautiful to me.

Here we are laying them out straight, my husband showed up and got to take some pictures of us. The bricks that I am holding,the one up top is concrete, the lower clay. Clay bricks are almost always larger than concrete. Lowes, Home Depot only sell concrete bricks that are supposed to resemble clay bricks. I discard the concrete, sometimes only  use them where they cannot be seen in parts of my garden. Clay bricks are infinitely more charming.

I loved my son helping me.

We took the straight design out and the laid then in the basket-weave pattern, two side by side, and then two on top. The cracks here we will fill with sand and dirt.

I started this garden with a basketweave pattern, then plain straight lines, now basketweave again . I like to see mixed patterns, only two usually, in a brick pattern layout. Over and over, going about 3 feet apart with each pattern.

It is coming along, once you do this, get up and stretch and stomp on the bricks to settle them. I ran out of plain clay bricks, did not use the ones with the holes in them. I then bordered the brick with more brick on their sides. One day I want to keep them going to make a path out of my garden.

Now normally, I would get sand and swish it down with my hands into the cracks. I have no sand, I was not getting in the car to go get sand, and I only had my Hercules son for another 30 minutes. So we made do with leftover dirt from the yard. Always make do in life.

Just spill it, sprinkle it , as heavy as you like, all over the bricks.

Then you just rub it all over the bricks, and it falls into the cracks.

You can do this as many times as you like, 2-6 times. The dirt just keeps settling into the cracks . Doing this over a period of weeks is good.

Then brush it off. Next step...

Then you water down all the excess dirt with your hose. You can do this as many times as you like. I only have done it once. Each time you add dirt and, and then water it down.It compacts your bricks into the ground.

Miss Spaz -kisser was lounging and looking regal watching us.

The fountain isn't centeered here, but I did move it later to center it. Still looking for new fountain.

So here we are, an uneven, but very charming brick center area. I suggest using only old bricks, no concrete ones, only clay ones. Oh, and hopefully you have a Hercules somewhere you can hire to help you...

Go make a brick accent for yourself. Go find you a Hercules/muscle-guy somewhere around. I was so  very sore after that day, I had not worked in my garden for months. Wishing for a time when I was younger...enjoy your days folks.

Bless someone tonight,

Gina

Ps. I have been unable to leave comments on many blogs I read. I am unsure if something is wrong with Blogger, but wanted the writers of the blogs I read to know.

Does Your GARDEN Mimic Your DREAM Garden ?

I think we all have dreams, fantasies about the perfect home, dream garden , perfect spouse, perfect job, perfect life...a dreaming soul is in all of us. And if I had a dream garden that I would love to have, that I would aspire to...it would be this one in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. I have written about how this garden ' draws me to it ' , every time I go on my walks. It is , out of all the glorious gardens there, my very favorite.

Outwardly, from the sidewalk in front...the casual stroller would not immediately notice this garden. But when you walk past the opening here...this is what you see,

 Wow, I do believe I catch my breath every time I see it.

 18th century design.

I love the small clipped boxwoods or hollies. The curved lines of the crushed shell paths , mixed with pebbles if I recall correctly....seem to lure you around the garden with your eyes.

To the right of the garden. I have to take all these shots from behind massive wrought iron gates , as my dream garden is out of direct reach to me.

I cannot set even my foot on the curved paths, without permission of course.

I hate to ask permission to do anything...not shy, actually assertive enough to go ahead and just do what I want to do .

But this is gated off , and I am in in bit of a paralyzed state when I am there.
If I ever am fortunate to see a real person out there, I will try to see if I can come inside. So far, I have not ever seen anyone outside.

I look out at it, and wonder what it would be like to go further  in ... there is a back larger garden area.

behind this guy...

This very handsome bronze statue, with his one broken forearm, always dances in my garden.

He is their centerpiece.

My daughter took this shot of me in early April, holding on tight to the bars of my dream garden. That is pretty much what I do when I am not taking pictures of it.

Staring and smiling, holding on tight.

Glad the homeowner's have not called the police on me before.

Alert, " Woman holding on tight to our garden gates in front , and looking dreamy."

That's me.

Oh !

forgot to show you the historic marker -plaque that describes this historic garden. Here you can read it for yourself:

Just click the picture to make it larger and read all the info. The John Blake garden, done in a  pattern style. Or parterre design info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parterre

Getting back to my earlier title to this post...Does your garden mimic your dream garden ? I thought that I am trying, unable to maintain mine like this one, as all of the historic Charleston gardens seem to have professional landscapers-caretakers come around and take care of them.

All I have is me, in the  yard-lady category.

Me will have to do though.

Here is part of mine below, overgrown, no clipped hollies surround, no winding pebble paths, no dancing teasing bronze statue... but it has a' feel ' of the other garden..at least to me.

 Late May.

Late June, today. Little wild out there isn't it ? Lush, needs further weeding and trimming.

But it is my garden, getting closer to my own dream garden at my own house.

I am sure this made you think of your dream garden .

Maybe it is already in your own backyard.

I do love my garden.

Have a great day,

going to be another scorcher here in the Deep south today...high 90's again,

Gina

 " All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits. " Proverbs 16:2

VISIONS that I SAW Walking around CHARLESTON , SC

Here is more of my pictures from a hot June visit to Charleston, SC. These will be some of those odd and end pictures , I always love to show Charleston accents and the flavor of the city as I believe it helps us with our garden ideas and inspirations.

 I love reflections in old wavy glass windows, and this store has fresh flower arrangements every time I pass it.

I love these fruit basket statues. I see these at many homes here.

Putting small statuary on top of your brick columns at your house always adds something to your visual palette , as you look at your home.

 Old brass doorbell.

Dripping , cascading fountain off The Battery. I felt like this picture can almost make you hear the water .

Humor me and pretend it does.

A lovely winding brick walk, leading into a home. It is rare to see a gate open here.

How overflowing and lush can a person make a window box ? This person would win a prize if it was a contest. Crammed full of begonias, coleuses, grasses, and some hibiscuses.

See the newspaper on the walk ? I imagined what it would be like for that to be MY newspaper and I lived here.

Imagination central resides in my head.

Most statuary is painted black here , or left bare.

More baskets on the iron fencing. I love this idea.

I bet you think you know what I took a picture of here ? You're wrong.

I wanted to get a shot of the cute , vintage sprinkler..to the left of the iron centerpiece. I enjoy seeing the very simple elements in gardens, I wish it had been on as I love the sight of old sprinklers and their slower watering method.
It calms something in me.

 I have shown this in some of my older posts on Charleston ( many from last Summer ), but will show again is the landscaping technique often used here with their brick borders. Most of the bricks are inserted downwards in to the ground. Not the simple side by side usual way we all do bricks. I believe this is to help with no encroachment from the yard into wherever the border is. This method involves more bricks and more labor.
But in the long run will last longer.

 Here is a wider shot, so love the brick accent area here. I love the quality of old bricks, imperfections in layout, made me smile just to see it.

 Another antique doorbell outside of a home.

Pretty typical about how treacherous it can be to walk around here. Always try to wear tennis shoes, not sandals...as the large trees have uprooted most of  the sidewalks around town.

Want this ? I will warn you, that Charleston can cause the greedy-garden-me-wants-it to erupt in your heart.

Copper downspouts.

Would you LOOK at this crape myrtle ?!! What on earth is the owner feeding this to make it so unbelievably profuse for us ?

Ok, again...I am going to stop here, but I have about 50 more pictures that I will divide up sort of like this:

A awesome white wooden garden gate entry ( you will love this )

Heavy fabulous wood door and iron entry

Short trip to Edisto Island  w/ big plastic cow entry

Stay tuned, have a good day wherever you are,

Gina

" I will never leave thee..." Hebrews 13:5