A New Homeowner’s How-To Advice on Installing Landscape Edging Blocks

A New Homeowner’s How-To Advice on Installing Landscape Edging Blocks

installing-landscape-edging-blocks


As a new homeowner I’m constantly learning new things. How to fix the garbage disposer, how to clean a glass stovetop, and how to lay brick edging for landscaping. The last one was me and my husband’s most recent project. Here’s how we did it.

Equipment and Supplies

The quantity of supplies depends on a variety of factors. For instance, the quantity of bricks you need depends on how many feet of edging you’re laying and the width of brick you choose. The amount of mulch or stones you need depends on the square footage of the area you’re completing and the depth of the bricks.

If you’re like us you’ll need to make about 20 trips to the store to get all the supplies you need because you have a small Honda Civic and a Ford Focus. Your other option is to rent or borrow a truck to minimize trips. In either case, you’ll need the following:

  • Bricks for edging
  • Mulch or stone for covering
  • Weed fabric (if you’re completely redoing your landscaping)
  • Sand (you can use children’s play sand)
  • Trowel
  • Shovel

Getting started

We had a little more work to do than you’ll have if you’re only doing your edging because we wanted to completely makeover our landscaping. You can see from the before and after pictures why. Once we weeded, removed all the plants we didn’t want, planted new ones, and laid weed fabric we got to laying the brick.

Digging out the grass

You’ll first want to dig out the grass where the brick will go using a shovel. Put your shovel about an inch or two in ground and lift up grass enough to loosen it. Once you go all the way around you can finish digging out the grass with your trowel. While you’re doing that you can even level the soil and place a brick in the trench you dug to see if you need to dig deeper.

Spreading sand

The sand helps the bricks settle in place, fill large gaps, and to help maintain an even height from brick to brick. Spread some sand then lay a brick. As you move from one brick to the next, spread more sand and lay a brick. Add more sand where needed to level the brick with the one next to it.

Just a note, make sure you start at the end that will be most visible. We learned this tip the hard way after placing all the bricks — in 90+ degree weather — and there was a gap just small enough a final brick wouldn’t fit. I ended up re-laying all the bricks while my husband ran to the store to get more mulch.

Final touches

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If you’re adding stones or mulch, now’s the time to place them. We needed about 12 bags because we started fresh. If you already have mulch, you can just get enough to cover your existing mulch to freshen it up.

Twelve hours later you should have finished and beautiful landscaping.

How did your brick edging turn out? Share your experience in the comments below!


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