In our family, grandparents and parents pass along plants to the next generation. But oddly enough, we also pass along BRICKS. Does this sound crazy?
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You might be asking why any family would pass along bricks? Well, for the most part, bricks come in handy. Gardeners love old bricks so they can place them under potted plants, make walkways, line flower beds, and prop open garden sheds. You can also throw one at a snake (just joking).
As you can see, after a number of years, one can get quite an assortment of mismatched bricks.
In fact, I had so many I was getting scared. What can one do with so many odd bricks?
The answer came after seeing a beautiful hodgepodge brick patio in another garden.
It was so cool. It was hip. It was avant garde. And it was the ANSWER!
It's hard NOT to put bricks in a straight line. It goes against all your instincts. Don't laugh, but I actually took photos of my friend's mismatched patio and drew a diagram so I could get it right!
In a way, I was trying to match a random pattern. That's quite an oxymoron. Plus, I felt like a moron....
but still a gardener's got to do what a gardener's got to do.
This was as random as I could get without going crazy. But what I love most is that all the odd bricks look great once the cracks are filled in with sand. I used white sand for contrast.
This new antique brick courtyard ("new antiques"...another oxymoron)
is in the suddenly sunny part of the garden (since my next door neighbor cut all their trees down).
To keep some semblance of order, I used the same type of flower in a row of clay pots. I like the effect.
In fact, I could probably use two more pots to continue the pattern.
This is now the view outside our bedroom window. I'm so excited about the random brick patterns, that I'm ready to make a second courtyard. There's just one problem:
I'm out of bricks! LOL
Until next time, happy gardening!
David/:0)
