Brick wall border and paving

[stealthwolf]

The sum of my gardening skills and knowledge come down to being able to mow the lawn.

We have a crazy paving path from one end of the garden to the other that curves. On the left is some soil with shubbery and whatnot and on the right is the lawn. At the moment, the way the path curves, I can't get into the shed without stepping on the soil. The soil has also started falling onto the crazy paving path, making it more difficult.

I've drawn a crappy ms paint drawing to show what I mean. What I'd like to do is remove some of the excess soil and lay down a brick wall maybe two or three bricks high (red line on diagram). In the future, I would then want to remove the nasty crazy-paving bricks and put down a proper path to walk on. Even just a straight line of concrete slabs would look better than what's there at the moment.

I can dig up the soil and make a straight line but what do I stick the bricks on top of? I don't want the wall falling over the moment someone steps on it. How deep should I begin the wall? I imagine I'll have similar issues with the paving.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Himaginn]

It doesn't have to be brickwork. You can use slabs stood up and partially buried, sleepers, cut down to length and same partially buried. I've used gravel boards half buried.
Anything will work except if you'e using timber, sleepers are best.
You can buy edges of all sorts.

 

[stealthwolf]

I've had a look at edging but don't think they're strong enough to keep the shrubbery and soil back. Hence going for bricks. If I dug a trench, put a layer of sand down, would I be able to lay bricks on top?

 

[Himaginn]

In which case you need to be more specific about how high the soil is to be retained.
And a sand footing will absolutely NOT do!

If it is only 150mm high (three bricks), 600X600 slabs on edge, gravel boards, sleepers partially buried would cope easily.

If you think you need to go brickwork route, I would think you'll need minimum 100mm thick concrete footing, twice as wide as the wall minimum, with brickwork central on footing, top of concrete 300mm minimum below ground. So your three brick high wall becomes more like a nine brick high wall, with six bricks below ground.

The pros might suggest more or less. I'm only a DIYer.

For peace of mind I'd make the footings three times as wide as the wall, with 2/3rds of the footing under the border.

Perhaps a pro might like to offer advice?

 

[stealthwolf]

Part of the reason I wanted brickwork was to match the brick wall closer to the house. Realistically 100mm would be fine. 150mm is overkill.

The previous owners just had a line of bricks loosely in the soil. It didn't look particularly good and I don't think it did a reasonable job. The soil slopes from the fence to the path. I just want stop it from encroaching the path.

Uploaded a pic of the garden. You can see it's raised and the wall on the left has a single line of bricks at the top of the last step. My plan was to extend this all the way down. It's a straight line from there to the shed. I could then think about what to do about the garden path.

 

[Himaginn]

I really would use gravel boards.
Or you could just bury bricks on end. Or 300mm X 300mm slabs on end. But gravel boards is the quickest, easiest and cheapest, IMO.

 

[endecotp]

I'd be tempted by something like one of these:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Gardens/Garden-Decor/Garden-Edging+Log-Rolls/c/1000732

 

[r896neo]

Just set bricks on their ends to form a kerb. Lay them directly into 4'' of semi dry concrete and point in between. Haunch the back of them slightly.

Or use something like a tegula kerb which can be laid in the same manor but can be butt jointed so no pointing needed. Or use a sleeper as suggested which can be partially buried and simply screwed to 2x2'' stakes

Tegual kerb below where you can see it will easily retain up to 6''