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John,
SOunds like you need to get some basic masonry familiarity. As much as I hate many of the Home Depot Books, there are several that aren't bad. Will give you a basic idea of how to set bricks and tool a joint.
It isn't all that hard to teach yourself, but unfortunately it can be intimidating until you get the feel of wet mortar in your blood.
If you have a crumbling brick planter, I'd remove the loose bricks first and get all the crumbling mortar out of the way. Might need to take out a few extra bricks so you get clean access. If you can salvage the existing bricks, great, if not you may need some new ones (hopefully that match).
Get it all cleaned up nicely and then build it all up again. Setting bricks isn't so bad when there are others as a guide, its building from scratch that is tough.
If you look in a masonry book, it will illustrate how you "butter" up a brick. After you get the bricks aligned and secure, you can start on the joints. Get them all flush initially and then after things start to set up (but before it gets too hard) you can tool the joints to match the other bricks.
Get a book and read it, but it's kind of like kissing in that you just have to make some mistakes but eventually you'll get better.
__________________
Steve
Get even, live long enough to become a burden to your children.
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