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Fences give the beds not only aesthetics. The sides prevent the soil from creeping and leaching, and if the bottom of the garden is reinforced with a steel mesh, the plantings will be 100% protected from moles and other pests. For self-production of fences, any available material is used. If desired, ready-made boxes can be bought 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 out along the contour of the garden bed.
Brick bed design options
Brick is a heavy building material, and it will not work to build a portable fence from it. Although this statement is not entirely true. It all depends on the purpose of the garden and the plants grown on it. Let's say you want to enclose a flowerbed with low-growing flowers or lawn grass in the yard. For such a bed, it is enough just to dig in bricks vertically. To achieve aesthetics, it is better to install each brick at an angle. The end result is a nice saw-toothed railing.
You can make a good edging of a low bed by laying the bricks flat in 2-3 rows. To do this, you will have to dig a shallow trench, pour a sand pillow and fold the brick walls dry without mortar.
The advantage of bed fences made of dug-in or dry-stacked bricks lies in the mobility of the structure. Of course, a brick wall cannot be moved like a galvanized box, but you can disassemble it if necessary. After serving one season, the bricks can easily be taken out of the ground, and the next year the garden bed can be broken in another place.
A completely different construction is high bed made of bricks. It will be more difficult to fold it with your own hands, but doable. Such a fence is a full-fledged brick wall, built on concrete mortar. Usually, the height of the sides is limited to 1 m, and such a structure cannot simply be laid out on the ground with sand bedding. 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 bursting, the fence 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 seal them well with mortar. Typically, such capital structures are built in the courtyard to decorate the landscape. Alternatively, it is better to immediately use decorative bricks. If the walls are lined with pieces, they are faced with decorative stone.
Erection of a brick bed on the foundation
Brick beds are easiest to build in a traditional rectangular shape. Before choosing a place, 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 beds, they begin to fill the strip foundation:
- On the site, stakes are driven in at the corners of the future fence.A construction cord is pulled between them, which defines the contour of the strip foundation.
- The wall of the garden bed is placed 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 bed. On stable soils, the trench width can be left to match the belt thickness. If the soil is heaving on the site, the trench is dug wider to arrange around the dumping tape.
- The bottom of the dug trench is leveled, after which a layer of sand 150 mm thick is poured. The sand pillow is leveled, watered abundantly with water and compacted.
- The next stage consists of installing the formwork. If the trench is dug wide, taking into account the dumping, then the formwork is installed from the bottom. The boards for the foundation without filling are installed only along the edges of a narrow trench. The height of the formwork is made taking into account that the concrete tape will rise about 100 mm above the ground level. In the second case, in a narrow trench, the formwork will be played by the earthen wall.
- The bottom of the trench and the side walls are covered with one layer of roofing material. Waterproofing will prevent the cement laitance from absorbing into the soil when the concrete is being poured. At the bottom of the trench on top of the roofing material, 2-3 reinforcement rods are laid out. At the corners and at the joints, it is tied with wire. To raise the reinforcing frame, halves of bricks are placed under the rods.
- The base is stronger monolithic, therefore it is concreted without interruption. For strength, crushed stone is added to the cement mortar.
The laying of a brick wall of a high bed begins after the foundation has completely solidified. This usually takes about two weeks. Bricklaying begins with forcing the corners, then gradually moving from them along the wall. If the finishing of the brick wall is not provided until the solution has frozen, jointing is done.
At the end of the brickwork of the entire fence, the structure is given at least two weeks to harden. During this time, you can make the foundation backfill, 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 erecting a garden bed fence on the 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 even of the strip foundation. For reinforcement of brickwork, 6 mm wire or steel mesh is used. They are embedded in cement mortar along the entire perimeter of the fence, while the thickness of the seam between the two rows of bricks increases.
Making a brick bed without a foundation and cement mortar with protection from a mole
It makes no sense to consider the process of arranging a fence made of vertically dug bricks because of the simplicity of the design. Now we will better consider making a brick bed without a foundation and mortar, at the bottom of which a protective mesh from a mole is laid.
So, having decided on the size and location of the garden, they begin to build it:
- Knowing the dimensions of the fence and the dimensions of the brick, they calculate the consumption of building material. Sod is removed along the contour of the future bed with a shovel, otherwise the germinating grass will clog the cultivated plantations.
- With the help of stakes and a construction cord, they mark the dimensions of a brick bed. At this stage, the site is well leveled, especially in the place where the bricks are laid.
- When the contours of the beds are marked, adhering to the cord, lay out the first row of brick fence. It is not worth adhering to the ideal even masonry.All the same, after the rain, it will sag in places, but at least approximately exactly the brick must be exposed.
When the entire first row is laid out, once again check the evenness of the fence along the diagonals, see if there are protruding bricks and other defects. After that, the bricks are removed to the side, and protection from the mole is placed on the bottom of the garden bed. First, a metal mesh of galvanized wire is rolled along the ground. From above it is covered with geotextiles or black agrofibre. All edges of the mesh and material should go under the brickwork. At the end of the arrangement of the bottom of the bed, the bricks of the first row are laid out in their place, pressing the mesh with the covering material.
- If necessary, make a higher fence, lay another one or two rows of bricks. When using hollow blocks, the cells are pushed with soil.
When the entire first row is laid out, once again check the evenness of the fence along the diagonals, see if there are protruding bricks and other defects. After that, the bricks are removed to the side, and protection from the mole is placed on the bottom of the garden bed. First, a metal mesh of galvanized wire is rolled along the ground. From above it is covered with geotextiles or black agrofibre. All edges of the mesh and material should go under the brickwork. At the end of the arrangement of the bottom of the bed, the bricks of the first row are laid out in their place, pressing the mesh with the covering material.
A classic rectangular brick bed is ready, you can fill in fertile soil inside. If desired, using a similar method, you can make a curly garden with your own hands, as in this photo. Note that in both cases, the walls are laid out dry without mortar and foundation erection.
The video shows the lined walls of brick beds:
We have considered the construction of only classic rectangular brick beds. Having shown imagination, quite interesting structures can be built from this material.
