A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Using bricks for a filler . . .

I have a rockery - my first, only started it last year. I've been saving the wild strawberry that grows wild around the place.

I plan to put it right down this strip, but wanted to fill it in with something while I'm waiting for more little sprigs of the stuff to put in.

I asked Jeff to get me some wood chips - he said ' they'll be all over the place with the squirrels and the wind', so he didn't get any.

Then I was chopping up part of a brick to use in a spot and thought 'hey!'. I happily spent the next couple of hours chopping my bricks.

Jeff had to help by taking his larger sledge hammer to the ones I couldn't get - guess he was sorry he didn't get the bag of chips, eh?

Carly, that's a great idea! I never thought about chopping up my 'bad' bricks - of which I have a TON of. Coolio...thanks for the idea It looks like a great filler too!

That is a great idea...looks really good! I couldn't believe I was reading that you were going to plant the wild strawberry there! The wild strawberries here are a constant battle to keep OUT of everything! The are everywhere...I would have no grass at all if I let them go...the birds love them for sure...but enough is enough!

That's what my friend in North Carolina says - she can't keep up with weeding it out and I'm walking around the lot looking for more.

I didn't know what it was till somebody identified it here. I started collecting it last year because it looked good as ground cover.

This lot is more or less 'woodland' and the wild stuff seems to do well. I just pull the ugly out of the way and the stuff that looks like a good fill for a patch, I transplant.

Yes, the bricks I chopped up were pretty ugly looking - if more come into my hands, I'll do the same. It's a heck of a lot better than buying phoney wood chips.

Sometimes I just fill in spaces with broken sticks - looks just as good.

I hope to get some growth - we've had some rain - yahoo!

Watch out for the slugs Carly...they love those rocky areas ( I have a bunch of them also!)UGH!!!! Wish I could train them to eat the wild STRAWBERRIES!!!!

they doooo? sheesh. I woulda thought they wouldn't like the chopped brick because it's sharp-ish kinda sorta. Fooey. I'll have to set out a cooler of beer

Good excuse to go get a case of beer, eh?

Well, slugs like wood - they like to be 'under' it to keep cool. That's another way to deal with them.

I haven't seen anything though - 'course it hasn't been that wet. Up till the last couple of days we were dry as a bone.

Then we had a bit - oh, was it wonderful. Everything I thought had died and gone to heaven, started creeping out of the ground again.

Including the ants - ha ha!

BTW - if you ever upset a colony of ants by mistake, get outta' there! When you get 'em mad, boy do they bite!

I found that out a couple of weeks ago - on one of my weed transfering projects - dug out a little corner of the retaining wall and a whole bunch of 'em came out and had me for lunch.