Brick Garden Beds
When we moved into our first home we both had some things that were important to us personally. Mike wanted an awesome shop. And I wanted an awesome garden. We both wanted more than one bathroom for our family of 6. Well when the dust settled we had a garage, a yard, and not 2 but 3 bathrooms. It was pretty wonderful.
We moved in August and so the shop got set up in the garage, the bathrooms definitely were utilized, and though the yard got plenty of play time, my garden beds had to wait until spring. It’s a bit of a story, but long story short, we ended up with a bunch of bricks so we decided to use those to make the beds.
We had a general idea of the size of beds we wanted but some adjustments had to be made to since the length of a brick can’t be changed. But the long bed in the back ended up being approximately 25’ x 3’ and the two in the front are approximately 11’ x 4’.
We didn’t want to deal with mortar so since bricks have holes in them and Mike hearts PVC this was his solution. What’s great about going mortarless too was that when we were filling the garden with dirt, we just removed some of the bricks at the end of the bed and were able to pull the wagon, sled, or wheelbarrow right into the spot we needed the dirt and dump. No lift or maneuvering things just right. This was particularly helpful because our walkways weren’t quite wide enough to accommodate all the dirt moving tools we used.
Staggering the bricks, cutting the pipe to the needed depth then pounding the pipe in until flush with the top. On these main beds we went 4 bricks high (losing some height to the grass we cut out) and so went at least 6 inches longer than that height in order to get a good amount of PVC pipe under ground.
When the brick portion was finished I got right to planting and the wood topper (we used cedar fencing planks) didn’t happen until the following summer. This took some pondering because it’s hard to attach things to brick. He was feeling cheap so what he did at the time, was pound some wooden plugs into the ends of the PVC pipe then screwed the wood topper into that. He has since decided that there are better, though slightly more expensive ways to do this.
Now let’s take a quick break from the tutorial and clear the air on some things. Anybody that has been married for some amount of time will attest that we are affected in some ways by our spouse. This doesn’t come as a surprise, right? We are all affected by those around us and we tend to be around spouses a lot. It doesn’t mean we lose our individuality but it is a part of the transition that happens from “you and me” to “us” stage of life. This tendency can be skewed for the good or bad honestly. Or two sides of the same coin even. When we started dating, Mike’s family told Mike was very frugal. Then they got to know me and realized that that can be taken to a whole new level. So maybe being with me for 15 years has made him a little crazy about saving a few pennies. I’m sorry. But not really because sometimes I find great deals and it makes it all worth it. But don’t ever go shopping with me. I promise it will not be fun. Back to the garden beds.
Lucky for you, you can learn from our mistakes though. Don’t do the wooden plugs. Fork over the 50 cents a PVC endcap and pop those puppies on the PVC and use those for the anchors for the screws. I just saved you a lot of time. You’re welcome.
Now they can look complete when they have nothing in them during winter which is about 32 thousand months long in Utah. And they look great while I grow the 32 thousand tomatoes that Mike doesn’t like. He’s a good sport.
