Recycling old sidewalks

Photo/Illustration: Rosalind Loeb Wanke

Broken pieces of concrete sidewalk can make an attractive edging for raised beds. The smooth side isn’t much to look at, but the underside is usually studded with pebbles of various colors and sizes. With plants set in between the chunks and trailing over them, a concrete edging can appear quite natural.

The most attractive part of concrete edging is the price—free! My husband used to stop whenever he drove by a construction crew jackhammering a sidewalk and ask if he could have the old concrete. The workers were always happy to oblige; it saved them from having to haul refuse to the landfill. Instead, they backed their truck up to the front of our house and dumped their load. My husband moved the pieces a few at a time to the back with a wheelbarrow. Then he set the concrete in place along the edge of the flower beds, breaking larger pieces where necessary to get the right fit.