Today we're using some paver edging to transform the backyard from this to this. I just finished in closing the area under my deck and it looks great, but the landscaping will what? Landscaping now? We're going to class this joint up a little bit here in Anna Garden bed with Paver edging along with some raised planters and a walkway. Now with my area defined in my head I could start laying it out with some steaks in string line. I drove a stake down near the stairs. I ran the line down the front edge of the garden bed which ended up being right around 65 inches from the deck. And my house juts out a couple feet past the deck on the side and this made a great visual stop for the bed, so I ran another line from the corner of the house up to meet that first one at a right angle. Now is trying to get this perfectly lined up because you know engineer and all, but you just need to get it close because then I sprayed the line with spray paint which isn't exactly a model of precision. To get a nice rounded corner, I measured in from both sides of the string about 15 inches at the corner and I could get a nice pivot point and then I use my tape measure as a guide for this break in and you might be able to just do this by I, but I kind of draw in spray paint like a 5 year old. So I do need the guidance to keep it presentable, so I followed the line down the front of the deck to the other stake to round. Off the bed on that end. And we decided to end the bed here before this tree. So I had to dig out a big clump of daffodils first. Now these things are just a mess, only like 2 of them bloom anymore. So don't get mad at me for digging him up. I use the same trick here to make the corner, but I made sure to put the raised planter in place so I could see how the spacing would look there in between the edge and the planner. And now I could commit to the layout and dig out the edge with a spade shovel and instead of pulling up the dirt at this point I was just getting a good crisp line, plus or minus 5/10 of a degree. And a stab Lish. The edge with my straight shovel. Now I'm going to go back and use the digging shovel, and I've got to remove at least 2 inches off this entire area. So I'm going to take the top layer of the grass off and throw it on here. On the tarp, if you're ever digging in your yard, make sure it's throwing the dirt on a tarp, because getting it out of the grass later will be a huge mess. After we do that, then we can start grading it and put a string line in here and really start leveling it out and getting it right where we need it. And this is the first of many times that you're going to see me digging in this video, and it's going to look about 1000 times easier than it really was. So these are the bricks I'm going to be using 7 inches long by 3 1/2 inches wide and they are one in three quarter inch thick. So I need to put these around the edge but underneath each of these I need 2 inches of paver stone an an inch of sand to get a nice base. So altogether that's right around 5 inches. So I'm going to do a 5 inch trench all the way around the edge and that's going to set the stones in place and make sure that they have a good base. I used the aptly named Trenching Shovel to dig out the small trench and it's a lot easier to use the full width of a shovel versus digging in from the sides with a wider one. And to help me quickly gauge the depth of the trench, I made a 5 inch mark on a scrap of wood. I also put a 2 inch mark on there for the next section that I'll be digging. I'm setting the pavers flush with the ground so it'll be easy to roll bikes and lawnmowers across it. I used the stick up against the side wall to see where it hit on that top edge of the dirt to gauge where I was at and I just got to digging. I ran into a drain pipe here and I just cut it off before the trench. I hope I made the right decision, but I guess we'll figure that out later. Alright, we've got the five inch Trench and now I'm going to level of this part and what I want to do is have it 2 inches deep. But also I need to slope it from the bottom here so these doors were still open all the way to this front edge. I'll run some string line in between here and there and then I can use my little stick at the two inch mark to make sure that this is all dug down. So we have enough space to build it back up with the stone. Now, after laying out the string, I could see that I had a lot more to remove on the front edge and it was like that pretty much the whole length of the bed. And at this point I also realized I was just causing myself more work by putting the dirt on the TARP 1st and I'm a big proponent of work smarter, not harder. So I started going directly into my little rolling dump cart here, which by the way this thing is amazing. It's way more stable and maneuverable than a wheelbarrow. I'd give this thing to shuffle blistered thumbs up and since this was coming up on 2 days of that art being in the grass, I decided I better move it so that I didn't have a great looking garden bed. With a huge patch of dead grass in front of it. How? But after working my way around the bed, I had a pretty decent base layer to work with. OK, so just when you thought the digging was done, actually we've got some more to do. I'm going to be putting in a couple of these pavers, some do two rows of three of these, and that's going to lead right into the under deck storage, so I'm going to mark that Allison spray paint and then dig that down to 5 inches and then then we will be ready to put the stone dust in. And I gotta say, I'm ready for that because I'm tired. Well, keep going. I'm beginning to feel a little bit like Andy Dufresne's digging my tunnel for years, but we're getting closer to freedom. Now, after raking and tamping down the soil to get a fairly level base, I put down some weed control fabric. Now this will be really important where I just have the rocks, so I'm not going to be picking weeds out of there all the time. Everything cleared out and the fabric liner is down to stop the weeds. Now I can start putting in the base which I'm going to put in the rock base for the pavers and I'll put that along the trench and all in this area right here where the pavers are going to. All the rocks and stones that I'll be using our bags from the home center. You can definitely get it cheaper though if you buy it in bulk from a landscaping company. It's just a trade off of. Ease of use and getting the right amount of material since buying a few more bags of stone board planning is a lot easier than going out to get another yard of gravel after pouring in the base, I tamped it down with a 4 by 4 post since my large tamper won't fit in the narrow trench. As I was filling the trench, I spread the bags into the walkway area here as well. Remember that work smarter, not harder. Well, that's me walking back and forth around the dump cart a half dozen times. Just getting in my workout. I also added a 3 inch line on my wood scrap and I was aiming at that level which would give me an inch of sand and then the pavers on top to be level with the ground. The big temper made short work of compacting the stone in the walkway and this part is important too as it gives a solid foundation to the pavers so they won't leave or settle overtime. Adding the stone and tamping it down in layers helps it get nice and tight, so you're not trying to compact two or three inches of stone all at once by hand. I work my way around the side of the deck and I filled in the trench in the small step stone recess is. And now I could get to the fun part, laying the papers in place. Now the ground was pretty uneven around the tree there, so I set up another string line to help give me a visual reference for setting the stones. I transferred a bag of sand into a 5 gallon bucket to make it easier to manage and pour out, and then I could put in a bed of sand that was deep enough to bring the bricks up to the string line. And this is my first time laying pavers like this and I didn't screw it out or level this and perfectly here. I opted to just kind of lay the bricks in and then pound him flush with a mallet and I also started in the middle and then I worked my way back towards the deck so that I could use the middle pavers to level the back ones because I couldn't hit that string line all the way to the back because of that concrete footer on the deck. And after laying that straight line of bricks I had to start making some adjustments. So I'm getting to the corner now and I've got a couple options here so I could just go ahead and curve that an leave a little gap in between the edges of the bricks. But I do have a wet tile saw, so I'm going to go ahead and use it now. You don't have to. You can leave it open, but I'm just going to basically stack these down here, see where they overlap, draw a pencil line and then cut them to fit. Hopefully I can get it right, but it will definitely look better than a larger gap to mark the cuts I laid in brick on top of the last one installed in, making sure that the back corners were lined up. Then I angled it to fit the curve and I marked a line where it overlap the brick beneath it. Now using that line I can make a quick cut on the wet tile. Saw which this thing cut through the stones like a butter. And the next stones are a little trickier because you need to make a cut on both sides. I used the same method, lining up the back corners and then I marked a cut line, but I'm cutting the bricks on both sides this time, so whatever that overlap was between them, I would cut half off of each brick, because if I cut the full overlap of each one then there would be a big gap left in between. I repeated the process and work my way around the curve, making the cuts and then setting the stones in place. The leveling them on a downward slope around the curve was a bit tricky, but I just made sure it stayed fairly flat and I was gauging it with my 2 by 4 and trying to transition from that string line on the side to the one in the front. But once I hit the front edge, things went really fast. I would lay down a bit of sand and smooth it out with my trial or the two by four and then set the papers in place and I just smack him like whack a mole until they submitted and were level on my line. When I got to the other corner, I put the side string line back up so that I could transition around the curve to the side of the house. Now the last break in that run needed to be cut, so I figured I'd try splitting it with a cold chisel just to show you an alternative way to cut the papers. I scored a line across it and then kept hitting it with my chisel along that line until it snapped. Let's just say this method is not as precise or as clean as the tile saw. I probably recommend using a circular saw with a masonry blade over this method, especially for angled cuts. All the papers are installed now and they're in that bed of sand. And then you saw I was compressing them down there so they were pretty solidly in there, but they could move side to side. So I'm going to use some polymeric sand and that goes in between the joints like a mastic that will harden after I put some water on it and it's going to help to hold those together and resist them from moving around. Now honestly, this is probably the worst use for polymeric sand since the connections between the stones are very minimal and it's not going to be nearly as effective as it would be if they were touching along the long edge. I used a little chip brush to help move the sand into the gaps and I tap the brakes with my shovel to help the sand settle all the way down into try to give it just a little more umph and sticking power. I did build up a little beveled layer on the inside of the bricks and I also filled in the gap between the dirt wall and the stones there, and I honestly don't know if this is going to help at all, but I figured it was worth a shot and it was better than nothing. And to activate the polymeric sand and get it to harden, you have to wet it down. Basically, you're just trying to get it fully wet without washing it out of the joints. Before moving on, I added a little bit more weed barrier to the back of that main bed to cover the spots that I missed before because I ran out of fabric. Where my cloud is it? Now I can start laying in the large 16 by 16 pavers. I'm going to six of them right here in the center to give me some easy access in and out of the storage area for things like my lawn mower and things that have wheels on it. So I'm going to lay down the sand bed and then start laying those in. Adopt a few bags in and I leveled it out with the back of a hard rake to get it spread out before leveling it off. Now I was feeling pretty confident about my ability to just scream this out level by I, so I did. I mean, how hard could it be to get it close to level right? And after meticulously eyeballing it, I'd lay down the two by four along the centerline to act as my guide for the papers I put a stone on either side, and then I threw a level on them. And apparently my pupil level is not as good as the real deal, and after a few attempts at adjusting the pavers, it was clear this was not the way. Mistakes were made. All right didn't work very well. I thought I could just read it and kind of do it by eye, but moving that 16 by 16 pavers not like these little breaks where you just found him and they move the 16 by 16 is a lot harder to actually push down into the sand because of all the surface area. So I'm going to do it what I should have done in the beginning. I thought I could get away with it. I'm going to put some pipe in the sand and screen off of that and get a nice level surface. So then I can just put him down and have minimal back and forth and having to adjust them do it right. Do it like do it wrong. Do it long. I sought the conduit pipes into the sand and then I leveled him off one another so that they both have the same slope from front to back, and then I added in more sand and I used the two by four discrete it flat across the whole surface, now added in sand whenever there was low spots. Now this is the way I wonder if the Mandalorian never uses his beskar spear for screening, but that worked pretty well. The second go round worked way better and screening this and made this part easy as I could just lay down the pavers and make some very minor adjustments to get them level with each other. The next I brought over the raised planters that we're using. We opted for metal versus wood just for some longevity. I cut out the liner in the center of the planner so that the veggies that we're putting in can have access to the soil beneath. And then I dug out some soil on the backside to make the planner a little bit more level and now it was finally time to add in the rocks and I'm using a river rock or technically a river Pebble here for these. It matches the style that's under the deck already and these are a bit smaller so they're going to fit nicely in between the stones. I work my way around the bed and I also installed the side pavers during that process. While I'm doing that, I want to thank today's sponsor WD40 Company. If you want your yard tools to last a long time, you need to properly care for them. And when you rinse them off with water it can lead to flash rusting which can turn into deep, pitted rust and a weak tool. But you can use WD40 multi use product to give the tools a quick spray to prevent this. It drives out moisture, protects the exposed metal and it lubricates moving parts in the trigger pro non aerosol can make spring large areas. Easy, but if you have depressed already like the shovel, you can use WD40 specialist rust remover soak to get rid of it. I poured some on a rag and let it sit overnight on the shovel in the morning the rust was dissolved and I sprayed on some multi use product to keep it rust free. It worked great. Check the links below in the description to pick up either of these products and a big thanks to WD40 Company for sponsoring this video. After the rocks were all in, we filled up the planters with the combo of garden, soil, compost and perlite and we're trying our hands at vegetable gardening for the first time. So if you have any tips, leave them in the comments down below. And the garden bed turned out great, and the paver edging really defines the space and holds the rocks there in place nicely in the deck. Skirting looks even better with this nice walkway. Up to it and this is a huge upgrade from where we started. Just a few weeks ago. If you enjoyed that video, I've got a video on how I did this deck, skirting from an old fence. You can check it out right up there. I want to give a big thank you to all those folks that have been joining the Builders Club and I'll catch you guys over on the next video. Where my cloud is it?
