When we moved into the house seventeen-plus years ago, the back yard had waaaaaaay too much grass (i.e., almost everything was grass).
We started laying out flower beds in broad swathes, killing the grass (or whatever) under them with newspaper and dirt, then planting them up with a combination of intentional plantings (roses) and "wildflower seed" grab bags. The interface between the remaining grass was handled through whimsy and Round-Up.
The result worked for a while, but of late I've gotten unhappy with the haphazard (as oppose to charmingly organic) nature of how things lined up.
Now it so happens that, also when we moved into the house seventeen-plus years ago, we had a front patio that was made up of brick pavers. We replaced that several years ago, but had the guys save the bricks in several neat stacks the side yard.
So my brilliant yard improvement idea this year (besides "Hmmm, better not neglect the weeds quite so badly this year as the last few") was to recycle those bricks to be borders between the grass and the garden. That way we have a relatively fixed border, I know where the DMZ is between flowers and grass (and can zap accordingly), and my nascent OCD is satisfied with its neat-and-tidiness.
For the past several weeks, I've spent a half hour or so each weekend carting the bricks around and placing them. Margie and Kay helped magnificently the first weekend we did it, but I'm the only one nuts enough to keep at it. And, honestly, it's making a world of difference to my eye (as well as pointing out where we need to do some grass reseeding — probably next year). The flowerbeds themselves are still more than a bit chaotic, but that's another project.
Not sure if the brick supply will last all through the side yard (where I've now gotten to), but I've some other bricks I can use there as need be.
This isn't the end-game. We have some nebulous longer-term plans for the beds in back. And if I were really dedicated to this arrangement I'd probably trench and put the bricks in perpendicularly … but that would be too much like work.
