Broken is Not Useless.
by
Inetia
1 Material
When I made my first garden walkway I didn't have a budget so I scanned Craigslist free ads. My first score was a pile of bricks , but most were broken. I was disappointed but in addition to the few whole ones I found, I took broken ones too.
But since then, as you'll see, I've learned that they're all useful and beautiful.
That said I'll reveal why and how it all started and evolved.
I needed to reduce water use along the foundation of my house because it has a basement so I dug up the flowers and planted them elsewhere in the yard. Then I cleared the corner of rocks and bricks so I could loosen and level of the soil.
I'm embarrassed to say that I used pallets in the corner to set chairs on. I just laid them on the ground. I carried in buckets of sand from the sandbox that once held our daughter's swing set. The horizontal white bricks transcend a slight slope in the walkway.
I gathered my bricks to work them into the walkway.
Soon I found I didn't have enough bricks but I thought that I could fill that space with another pallet and make room for my umbrella table. It meant digging out more plants and moving the bed edging again, but it was definitely worth it.
With another pallet in place I laid the solid bricks on edge along the pallets to keep the sand in the walkway and finished laying the broken bricks to the level of the pallets. I call this my 'Kona Room' because it's graced by the canopy of My Old Kona hibiscus tree.
She's beautiful in bloom an shades her new Room.
I know my hillbilly pallets will fail, but I'll cross that bridge when I have too. Oh! speaking of bridges, my new walkway adjoins this weathered little bridge I threw together about 18 years ago from leftover pieces of deck railing. My 'Deck Rail Bridge' goes over to my 'Church Rock Room' that I built three years ago. Can you guess why I call it that?
The only cost my 'Kona Room' incurred was gas money in the collection of materials. FTR, I'm a lady, 72 years by the calendar, and I made my garden rooms all by myself including the acquisition of the materials. I do ask for help with heavy lifting but my projects are all my own, and I love doing them. I call it 'garden therapy,' which leads to 'motivational labor,' which leads to 'mind over arthritis.'
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 22 comments
-
Wow, i love what you've done. Looks great and very inspiring 😊!
-
I was also interested in the flower paving stones.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?