Re: Finding "cheap" bricks or cement blocks for edging

Nan, I am very interested, because I am looking at many feet of bed
perimeter I need to raise about a foot for drainage. I don't have your email
address, so please reply to mine:
Hal

hlanktree@comcast.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nan Sterman" <nsterman@plantsoup.com>
To: <perennials@hort.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: Finding "cheap" bricks or cement blocks for edging


> And if I may follow up on Diana's great suggestion... years ago, we
> priced out doing all of our hardscape -- walkways, retaining walls,
> etc -- using flagstone.  The price was prohibitive so we got on the
> phone and started calling truckers and pool installers and concrete
> pourers and amassed a great stockpile of broken concrete for pennies.
> Usually, if we were closer to the job site than the dump was, they'd
> be happy to drop it off at no cost as they pay tipping fees to the
> dump (not to mention the time and resources it takes to get there).
>
> We installed the broken concrete as we would have done flagstone.
> Visitors are AMAZED when they find out what the material is.  We
> found that we had two colors of broken concrete -- gray and pink
> which was very similar to the flagstone color we were looking at.
> So, we used only pink in the front garden and used the gray in back.
>
> There are some things to know about if you want to use broken
> concrete so if anyone is interested, drop me a line off-list and I'll
> share some of our lessons learned.
>
> Nan
>
>
> >Dear perennial friends:
> >
> >Last week I found a way to buy both bricks and cement blocks at amazingly
> >cheap prices.  I needed at least 30 feet of cement blocks to protect my
> >newest shrub and perennial border from our summer "weed wacker" people
who
> >don't seem to know the weeds from the plants.
> >
> >I visited a local building supply company that maintains a "bargain yard"
> >consisting of the leftovers from finished jobs.  I found 36 solid white
> >cement blocks with a nice finished "front" for only 25 cents a block.  I
> >couldn't have bought the standard "gray" cement blocks for this price.
Have
> >picked up nice bricks for edgings for as little as 5 or 10 cents apiece
from
> >the same place in the past.
> >
> >If any of you need edging, check out your local building supply.  You may
be
> >able to pick up nice looking edging material much cheaper than the
"plastic
> >edging" sold in garden centers.
> >
> >Just a suggestion.
> >
> >Diana Pederson, Michigan, USDA Zone 5
> >gardening.bellaonline.com
> >houseplants.bellaonline.com
> >
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>
>
> --
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>
> Nan Sterman Plant Soup (TM)
> Please note new mailing address:
> PO Box 231034
> Encinitas, CA 92023 760.634.2902 (voice)
> NSterman@PlantSoup.Com 760.634.2957 (fax)
>
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