Isle Landscapers Limited

Adding ornamental brickwork to your garden can help separate parts of it while adding more style. Ornamental brickwork sounds a lot better than having a regular brickwork wall built. You can design them yourself and be as simple or elaborate as you want them to be. 

Whether you want a modern-looking feature or a more traditional style to match your house, the choice is completely up to you. You can decide whether to have the brickwork on-show or hidden using soft landscaping.

It is completely up to you when it comes to the design of ornamental brickwork. The best way to choose a style of brickwork is to research online, find public examples and take photos, and use your imagination to draw how the perfect design looks.

Decorative Bricks For Landscaping

Bricks have been used as a building component for centuries. This hard material can be used to create hardscape features such as bespoke fire pits, appealing walkways, and charming edging. Hardscape technically comprises parts of a landscape that are not alive.

Decorative brick walkways can create focal points on a landscape by directing them towards certain areas or zones in your garden. There is a bounty of brick patterns, including basketweave, herringbone, running, and stacked. You could even make one that leads you from your door to a bench.

You can use decorative bricks to edge flower beds, pathways, or lawns to create visually intriguing features in your garden. It is a cost-effective choice compared to making all your hardscaping brickwork. If you take on this project by yourself, you will need gravel, sand, nails, a screed, a brick saw, and a plastic paver for edges.

You may want to create a seating area around the firepit for summer barbeques, evening marshmallow roasts, or hangouts, whether it's to share with friends and family or just for yourself. 

Plant beds can include shrubs, flowers, and a combination of the formers with water features. Edging these beds with brickwork can make your garden look tidier compared to a lawn edge. Brick edging is a simple and subtle way to clean up a driveway and keep beds tidy.

Installing brick columns can add a formal ambience to your property by making the entrance and driveways look lavish. 

They can also be used to enhance focal points in your garden, such as different zones, at the end of posts or fences, outdoor taps, and wells. Brick columns provide an ornamental purpose to your property as it increases their appeal.

You could even build a traditional brick pizza oven and make it wood-fired using logs as fuel. The area that comes into direct contact with flame is usually made of durable fire brick material to ensure the internal oven does not crack and break easily.

As they are often conveniently located in the backyard for parties, you could make one for your family or friends to share your love of pizza. Conventionally, the appearance of a pizza oven features herringbone-patterned cores and a dome shape at the top for efficient cooking.

Tips And Tricks for Ornamental Brickwork

It is important to produce a written plan as to the course of action. This will entail measuring your work area first, sketching your ideas, and then showing someone else to get their professional opinion. If you are sharing the house, this would be the perfect time to combine ideas as to how you want your garden(s) to look.

If you don't, and the bricks you are building with are too hot, then the mortar fails to attach to it as all the moisture it needs is taken out of the equation too quickly.

Adding decorative brickwork can create an impact as subtle or lavish as you decide you want it to be. Whatever your preferences for decoration are, building with bricks comes with a vast array of options. For more creative and timeless uses, please see below.

Creative Uses Of Bricks In Garden Design

Bricks are the best durable material with which to decorate your property, whether your bricks are leftovers from construction or specifically bought for your project.

Sometimes mowing the lawn is not enough to keep weeds, foliage, and overgrowth from intruding onto your paths, walkways, and beds. Laying bricks along the edges of flower beds and lawn edges will be sure to provide the solution to this problem.

Bed edging works by keeping any soil and mulch from leaking onto a bed. If you want to add some flair to your garden, you could also interlock your bricks into an interesting pattern that will undoubtedly catch your visitors' eye.

Ground divides are very similar to bed edging, except instead of having a raised edge, it is flat to match the two beds. The purpose of dividing the ground with bricks would be to avoid tripping hazards when walking from one ground material to the other.

For example, mowing the lawn and removing weeds is much easier when the lawn and pavements are at the same level. As a result, your garden looks more orderly and the ground tidy.

Creating a circular compost bin would be a practical use for any bricks you may have. Leaving gaps between the bricks allows for ventilation, and you can adjust how much airflow the bin gets by making the gaps shorter or wider.

Building a bin in the shade would prevent the compost from overheating, as bricks hold heat very well. Make sure that the size of the bin is big enough to shovel the contents out without potentially knocking it over.

If you want to create a romantic and idyllic theme, constructing brick flooring in your garden can do this. Firm flooring can form entire outdoor seating and play areas. Bricks also conveniently prevent your chairs and benches from sinking into the ground.

You can create an interesting look by contrasting the rustic look of brick with delicate and colourful flowers. Laying brick shards in your garden can encourage wildlife by acting as an area for butterflies and other insects looking for a warm perch.

Additionally, patterned brickwork such as crosshatch and herringbone can create an aesthetically pleasing setting to look upon every morning. You can use brick shards as pieces of art for your garden.

 If you have fully formed bricks, you could smash them into smaller parts using a sledgehammer, just do not forget your safety goggles first! 

Consider using the shards as textured accent pieces as garden art. You could create a beautiful rockery garden with succulents and herbs combined with other tiles and rocks

You can create an interesting look by contrasting the rustic look of brick with delicate and colourful flowers. Laying brick shards in your garden can encourage wildlife by acting as an area for butterflies and other insects looking for a warm perch.

Additionally, patterned brickwork such as crosshatch and herringbone can create an aesthetically pleasing setting to look upon every morning.

Transform your metal or minuscule mailbox into a focal point at the entrance of your property. You can make your mailbox more stable and stand out by applying a creative combination of brick and mortar. By remaking your mailbox this way, you will be sure to make your neighbours turn their heads.

If you have ever wanted to establish a moss garden on your property, bricks are the only building blocks you need. You can turn your common building materials into a host of emerald carpets. Begin your moss garden by placing bricks on the ground in any pattern you want.

We recommend using live hypnum sheets of moss that are often sold in local plant nurseries. Next, you will need to give your moss a much-needed drink.

Moss thrives off buttermilk and beer. You can create moss food by blending moss and water with either milk or compost. You could build your moss garden on the roof of your house or shed, provided that the moss can be kept damp enough to prosper.

You could construct solid planters out of brick in as traditional or fantastical a design as you want. A well-placed planter can showcase the best of your plants or act as a convenient planter for tending to one of your favourites.

Ensure there are adequate holes at the bottom of the planter to release excess water and place a layer of pebbles along the bottom to boost drainage.

Being able to observe what is in the foreground as well as the background allows a gardener to layer plants with different heights well.

For example, you could grow short flowers in front of a pony wall and have higher flower bushes behind the pony wall to visually blend soft and hard landscaping features.

If you and your neighbours want to show each other your gardens, you may find a pony wall suits better than a larger one.

If your garden has a natural slope, then building a retaining wall is useful in controlling the said slope. You have probably seen a retaining wall along roads that go through the middle of two hills. A retaining wall laterally restrains soil and controls the slope.

In your garden, you may want to construct a retaining wall by stacking bricks on top of each other and lining it with landscaping fabric for soil to go in.