Home Project over 4th of July Holiday Long Weekend

The U.S. Independence Day holiday (4th of July) fell on a Monday this year, a nice 3-day long weekend.  Unfortunately, it also had bright cloudless skies and 33-35C high temperatures almost all 3 days.  This meant what I had originally planned as a one-afternoon home improvement project stretched out to almost 3 afternoons. Every 30 minutes I spent outside, I had to cool down inside for 1 hour!  (Why didn't I do it in the mornings while it was cool?  Would you wake up early during a long weekend?)

No, the project wasn't planting flowers.  Credit for the nice foliage goes to Jia Nin (check out her Flickr site here and here).  My contribution is the red-brick that line the walkway.  


The issue is that those flower beds slope away from the house.  Normally, this is not a problem as it helps shed water away from the foundations of the house.  Unfortunately, it also means that good top soil and compost is washed away when there are ultra-heavy rains, like during a few of the spring storms this May.  This exposes plant roots and flower bulbs, not to mention messes up the walkway.  So I decided to hold back the soil by adding a raised brick edge.


The process is well documented on the internet, which is where I did the research, naturally.  Of course, since each DIY site has their own recommendations and methods, deciding which to use is a challenge in itself.  After a bit of trial and error the first afternoon, I chose this method.


I'm only half done right now.  The far end of the line of bricks has to turn the corner in a 90 degree arc.  The long-ish brick we chose did not follow the curve close enough.  Time to go back to the stores and see what they have!