# Forum Home Renovation Paving  Advice on paving  a garden border

## DIYwannabe

Hi everyone  I am about to lay a single line of paver end to end (with a gap) as a border between lawn and garden bed. I found useful tips on how to do this from this great site:  Lay a bed of brickies sand a couple of inchesdeep. Mix up a sand cement mix of 5:1Run a string line at finished paver level.Place paver, tapping lightly with rubber mallet to the right height and then another couple leaving a gap of about 1/2 inch space between. batter the mortar on the sides so that it comes up 2/3's way up the side of the pavers and locking them in. Once they are all in, let them dry for a day or so and then mix a little mortar for the gaps between them, and use water and a sponge to clean off the excess near the gaps. Backfill on bothsides with soil for garden bed and turf. 
One question I have is how wide should the bed of brickies sand be? Should it be the width of the paver? or the width of the batter or wider? I have attached a picture that illustrates what I am asking.  
Any advice would be much appreciated. 
Thanks 
DIYwannabe

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## simopimo

I would have thought that a concrete bed about 7 to 10 cm thick would be better than cement, then mortar the bricks/pavers on top of that after the concrete cures using brickies mud or sand/cement with some bondcrete mixed in to improve adhesion. 
That's what most of the guides say, and it's what I did in my front and back yards on reactive clay (garden beds the length of my backyard on both sides).  No issues with bricks moving other than when tree roots get under the concrete bed. 
I just used the pre-mixed bagged concrete as I don't have a mixer.

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## Pulse

I'd just do a bed of mortar not sand, concrete stronger but is more mucking around, then bring the mortar around the edges, to improve adhesion put neat cement paste on the paver before tapping in with mallet

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## DIYwannabe

> I would have thought that a concrete bed about 7 to 10 cm thick would be better than cement, then mortar the bricks/pavers on top of that after the concrete cures using brickies mud or sand/cement with some bondcrete mixed in to improve adhesion. 
> That's what most of the guides say, and it's what I did in my front and back yards on reactive clay (garden beds the length of my backyard on both sides).  No issues with bricks moving other than when tree roots get under the concrete bed. 
> I just used the pre-mixed bagged concrete as I don't have a mixer.

  Thanks for the suggestion. So approximately how much mortar do you put beteween the cured concrete and directly under the paver?

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## simopimo

> Thanks for the suggestion. So approximately how much mortar do you put beteween the cured concrete and directly under the paver?

  Bear in mind that I'm no expert, but I allowed for the same mortar gap as you'd see in a normal course of house bricks (couple of centimetres). Moisten the brick first so it doesn't suck all the moisture out of the mortar.  Plop some mortar down, pop the brick down and give it a tap with a mallet to ensure there's no air gap under the brick. So you might want to put some extra mortar down to allow for it to settle after tapping.  Scrape off the mortar that oozes out the sides and do the next one! 
You'll get a feel for it over time.  Watch your levels too - use a string line and spirit level.  I use a spirit level for each 3 bricks and then slide it along.  Obviously this is just for a garden bed - I would never try to do a brick wall this way.  You will get a bit of time at the end to line things up but you don't want to be mucking with it after it's started to cure. 
Bondcrete adds extra adhesion to the mortar - worth doing. 
PS the method mentioned by Pulse might be better for your needs. I went with concrete because it was more solid and I am on clay which tends to get wet and soggy.  My garden beds were my first concrete and brick project, so the mortar thickness varied to allow for the crappy concreting job that I did (very UNlevel). I ended up rendering mine afterwards with a sponge so you can't see the mortar anyway.

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## DIYwannabe

Thanks for the advice - much appreciated! :Smilie:

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