Block paving garden edging.

Fruffy91

Hey there everyone hope your all well! Was reading this guide on our website before 
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/diy/how-to-edge-a-lawn-with-bricks/
About how to lay bricks as garden lawn edging. Now am planning on doing something similar next year at some point around my lawn edge in back garden. Now the guide says to just spread my cement onto the ground and lay my bricks straight onto the cement. But is there not extra steps involved including laying some sort of base down hardcore or compacted gravel etc. Then lay cement bricks ontop of that. If you don't do this won't everything just shift over time as there is not a stable base? 

Fairygirl

It depends how the edging is being used. If it's just decorative, it would need very little. If it's being laid on clay soil, in certain environments, you might benefit from a base layer. Same on light, sandy soil. 
You wouldn't be using 'cement' anyway. It's a mortar mix you would use to fix anything in place.

JennyJ

I didn't use a hardcore base layer for mine. The soil is sandy and pebbly, and was unimproved and quite compacted where I laid the block edging because it had been under the lawn that had been there probably since the house was built. I cut the lawn down to the size and shape I wanted, took out a shallow trench around the edge (deep enough for blocks plus sand-and-cement mix) and trod down the base of the trench to be sure it was good and firm. I've had a few blocks shift where they're near the roots of trees/shrubs but that's over maybe 20 years so not too bad.

Fairygirl

Absolutely @JennyJ. The nature of the underlying ground determines how much or how little 'extra' back up is needed.
Your ground under the existing grass will certainly have been a good base. I edged a new border with granite blocks which were already here, and in the same scenario as yours. There had been compacted grass there - probably since the houses were built 50 years ago or so. I hardly needed to do anything to them, and only did a bit of mortaring last year to raise a few. The soggy clay was sinking a little bit 

madpenguin

I did similar for a small wall to hold back soil in a flower bed at different levels,just dug a small trench a little wider than the bricks put a layer of cement at the bottom and then laid the bricks on top,cementing them together roughly.The wall is 3 bricks high with about half a brick under the soil.Been pretty solid for around 10 years,enough to stand on, with no proper foundations dug.So I think a bit of mortar under a lawn edge is fine.

Kili

Fruffy91 said:

Hey there everyone hope your all well! Was reading this guide on our website before 
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/diy/how-to-edge-a-lawn-with-bricks/
About how to lay bricks as garden lawn edging. Now am planning on doing something similar next year at some point around my lawn edge in back garden. Now the guide says to just spread my cement onto the ground and lay my bricks straight onto the cement. But is there not extra steps involved including laying some sort of base down hardcore or compacted gravel etc. Then lay cement bricks ontop of that. If you don't do this won't everything just shift over time as there is not a stable base? 

If you only want to do the job once I would put down any old hardcore you have lying around in your trench then thump it down with what ever you can find then put a 1 or 2 inch concrete base down . You can buy ready mixed concrete bags from most DIY stores.
Then you can lay your bricks with a 3 sand and one cement mix which is a standard mix when laying blocks, bricks in the building trade.

If your not bothered about redoing the occasional slump then do as others have said.