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Fencing gives garden beds more than just aesthetics. The sides prevent soil from spreading and washing away, and if the bottom of the bed is further reinforced with steel mesh, the plantings will be 100% protected from moles and other pests. To make fences yourself, use any available material. If desired, ready-made boxes can be purchased at the store. Most often, summer residents prefer homemade fences. Brick beds are considered the most reliable, especially if they are high. A solid structure is erected on a foundation, and low brick fences are simply laid along the contour of the bed.
Design options for a brick bed
Brick is a heavy building material, and it will not be possible to build a portable fence from it. Although this statement is not entirely true. It all depends on the purpose of the bed and the plants grown on it. Let's say you want to fence off a flower bed with low-growing flowers or lawn grass in your yard. For such a bed, it is enough to simply dig bricks vertically. To achieve aesthetics, it is better to install each brick at an angle. The end result is a nice jagged fence that resembles a saw.
You can make a good edging for a low bed by laying bricks flat in 2-3 rows.To do this, you will have to dig a shallow trench, pour a sand cushion and lay the brick walls dry without mortar.
The advantage of fencing beds made of dug or dry-laid bricks is the mobility of the structure. Of course, a brick wall cannot be moved like a galvanized box, but it can be dismantled if necessary. After serving one season, the bricks can be easily removed from the ground, and next year the bed can be laid out in another place.
Presents a completely different design high bed made of brick. Folding it with your own hands will be more difficult, but doable. Such a fence is a full-fledged brick wall built on concrete mortar. Typically, the height of the sides is limited to 1 m, and such a structure cannot simply be laid out on the ground with a sand backfill. With winter-spring temperature changes, the soil tends to heave. For each area, the degree of ground movement is different, but still this natural phenomenon is inevitable. To prevent the brickwork from being torn apart, the fencing of the high bed is made on a strip foundation.
You can lay out the walls of a high bed from any pieces of brick, the main thing is to fasten them well with mortar. Typically, such permanent structures are built in the yard to decorate the landscape. As an option, it is better to immediately use decorative brick. If the walls are made of pieces, they are faced with decorative stone.
Construction of a brick bed on a foundation
Brick beds are easiest to build in the traditional rectangular shape. Before choosing a location, you need to calculate everything, because the capital structure will stand in the yard for many years.
So, having decided on the shape and size of the bed, we begin to pour the strip foundation:
- At the site, stakes are driven into the corners of the future fence. A construction cord is pulled between them, defining the contour of the strip foundation.
- The bed wall is laid in half a brick, so a foundation width of 200 mm is sufficient. The depth of the concrete base in the ground is at least 300 mm. The result should be a shallow strip foundation.
- A trench is dug along the contour indicated by the cord. Its dimensions will be larger than the dimensions of the concrete tape. It is necessary to take into account the thickness of the sand bedding. On stable soils, the width of the trench can be left corresponding to the thickness of the tape. If the soil on the site is heaving, the trench is dug wider to build around the backfill belt.
- The bottom of the dug trench is leveled, after which a layer of sand 150 mm thick is poured. The sand cushion is leveled, watered generously and tamped.
- The next stage consists of installing the formwork. If the trench is dug wide, taking into account the backfill, then the formwork is installed from the bottom. Foundation boards without backfill are installed only along the edges of a narrow trench. The height of the formwork is made taking into account that the concrete strip will rise approximately 100 mm above the ground level. In the second case, in a narrow trench, the role of formwork will be played by an earthen wall.
- The bottom of the trench and side walls are covered with one layer of roofing felt. Waterproofing will prevent the absorption of cement laitance into the soil during concrete pouring.At the bottom of the trench, 2–3 reinforcement rods are laid on top of the roofing material. It is tied with wire at the corners and at the joints. To raise the reinforcing frame, brick halves are placed under the rods.
- The base is stronger than monolithic, so it is concreted without interruption. For strength, crushed stone is added to the cement mortar.
The laying of the brick wall of the high bed begins after the foundation has completely hardened. This usually takes about two weeks. Brick laying begins by forcing out the corners, then gradually moving from them along the wall. If the finishing of the brick wall is not provided until the mortar has hardened, do the jointing.
After finishing the brickwork of the entire fence, the structure is given at least two weeks to harden. During this time, you can fill the foundation if it was originally planned. For backfilling, use sand, small stones or any construction debris that allows water to pass through well. Any selected material is used to fill the voids between the walls of the trench and the concrete foundation.
Reinforcement of brickwork
When building a fencing bed on a foundation with your own hands, the brickwork can be reinforced. This is especially true on highly heaving soils, where there is a possibility of deformation of even a strip foundation. To reinforce brickwork, use 6 mm thick wire or steel mesh. They are embedded in cement mortar along the entire perimeter of the fence, while the thickness of the seam between two rows of bricks increases.
Making a brick bed without a foundation and cement mortar with protection against moles
There is no point in considering the process of arranging a fence made of vertically dug bricks due to the simplicity of the design. Now we will take a better look at making a brick bed without a foundation and mortar, at the bottom of which a protective net against moles is laid.
So, having decided on the size and location of the bed, we begin its construction:
- Knowing the dimensions of the fence and the dimensions of the brick, the consumption of building material is calculated. The turf is removed with a shovel along the contour of the future bed, otherwise the sprouting grass will clog the cultivated plantings.
- Using stakes and construction cord, mark the dimensions of the brick bed. At this stage, the site is well leveled, especially in the place where the bricks are laid.
- When the contours of the bed are marked, adhering to the cord, lay out the first row of brick fencing. You should not adhere to ideal, even masonry. All the same, after the rain it will sag in places, but the brick must be placed at least approximately evenly.
When the entire first row has been laid out, once again check the evenness of the fence along the diagonals, looking for protruding bricks and other defects. After this, the bricks are removed to the side, and mole protection is placed at the bottom of the bed. First, a metal mesh of galvanized wire is rolled out on the ground. It is covered with geotextile or black agrofibre on top. All edges of the mesh and material must extend under the brickwork. Upon completion of the arrangement of the bottom of the bed, the bricks of the first row are laid out in their place, pressing down the mesh with covering material.
- If it is necessary to make a higher fence, lay one or two more rows of bricks. When using hollow blocks, the cells are pushed with soil.
When the entire first row has been laid out, once again check the evenness of the fence along the diagonals, looking for protruding bricks and other defects. After this, the bricks are removed to the side, and mole protection is placed at the bottom of the bed. First, a metal mesh of galvanized wire is rolled out on the ground. It is covered with geotextile or black agrofibre on top. All edges of the mesh and material must extend under the brickwork. Upon completion of the arrangement of the bottom of the bed, the bricks of the first row are laid out in their place, pressing down the mesh with covering material.
The classic rectangular brick bed is ready; you can fill it with fertile soil. If you wish, using a similar method, you can make a shaped bed with your own hands, as in this photo. Please note that in both cases the walls are laid dry without mortar or foundation construction.
The video shows the laid out brick walls of flower beds:
We considered the construction of only classic rectangular brick beds. By showing your imagination, you can build quite interesting structures from this material.
