There's a lot of things you can do to repurpose the bricks in the yard. I've attached a pic of my firepit (although it's not REpurposed brick). Walkways, edging a new flower bed or you could paint the flower or veggie names on them and use them as plant markers.

We have a pile of the same sort of rubble that you describe, broken bricks and mortar. The grand plan is to use them for fill under a drainage ditch/ dry creek bed that we are planning.

If one is going to build a shed, I would not be worried about raising the PH underneath the shed. I do not think the mortar would be worse than the marl ( I just love that word) in my dirt or the caliche in road base. People are not going to want to grow plants in the brick rubble either. I would not use either for a garden soil, unless it was a cactus garden , then maybe the bricks with some dirt and sand mixed in. There are better bases to grow in.

colonel_kernel, Very nice fire pit. We used a huge hollow fruitless mulberry stump a few years back. Of course it burned out over a season (which was intended), but did enjoy it while it lasted. We do have some plans to use remaining whole and half bricks in walks or as edging. There are some bits in the rubble that might work as markers... and know from experience that exterior house paint on brick lasts forever. Thanks for the ideas.

pkpnoder, watonamara, Thanks for the inputs on using the rubble as fill. Have since seen somewhere that effects on soil pH from old mortars are also not as pronounced or durable as from newer materials. Knew what marl was, but not what it was called... nice to have a new word.

Have seen crushed brick used nicely as mulch, but does not seem like a practical DIY product without access to some portable or commercial crusher.

This post was edited by bostedo on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 23:14