Jewell - Thank you!
I recently submitted an article here on ATP, "Concrete Hardscaping for the Garden, by beckygardener" . Not sure when it will be published, but keep an eye out for it. I love concrete and have used it for hardscaping of my garden areas.
I am quoting this from my article concerning the concrete bags wall/border, so ....
"I came up with the idea of using bags of concrete as a border around an Oak tree. The paper peels off when it is wet (or over time). You do want to puncture the bags by making small slits in the bags to allow water/moisture to enter. The hardest part is making sure that the bags stay wet. You can lay old wet towels over them at night to let the moisture soak in so that the concrete hardens. I did this border in small phases over several months. I was concerned about the amount of lime leaching from the concrete into the ground soil (I didn't want to kill any of my plants or trees), so I took my time adding bags gradually. I soaked the bags with my garden hose repeatedly over the course of 2 days. (At times, I even worked around predicted rain.) It worked out well doing it that way! In hindsight, it would probably have been best to build such a concrete border, let it cure and leach out for a while, and THEN add the plants. Luckily, it didn't become a problem for me in this instance. The tree was large and established as was the lantana & rain lilies in that bed."
I also peeled back the paper bags later that day to kind of round the edges of the concrete (with my gloved hands) to make them look more like a rock instead of the impression of the bags! LOL!
