Show me your mailbox/mailbox garden; mine needs so much help

i am starting to look to next spring and one of my projects will be my mailbox and a mailbox garden....do you have a great unusual mailbox or mailbox garden?? would love to see all yours!!!

sticks_n_stones, I painted a lovely mailbox situated in a garden but have no photo's..I painted it for my daughter-in-law.....am sure I have the pattern though...It was a garden lady waist up which her body fit exactly at the end of the mailbox...she was holding birds from one hand a bee hive in the other..she wore a stripped dress and hair pulled back.a bumble bee was situated on the door for easy access...very, very pretty..too bad the young chaps on the street didn't think so...they spray painted it black and took a baseball bat to it....

betty thats a shame....would have love to see it!!!

Sticks, I painted mine with a Lighthouse scene.
Lots of Stella D'Oro around the base.
Simple, no maintenance.
Andy P

very cute...is the stella.....full sun??

Full sun for another year or two, the trees are growing fast.
Andy P

My old neighbor had stella growing along her front walk, and the front lawn was almost fully shaded. I don't know about MA, but down SE Texas stella will grow with ANY amount of sun. I love it.

We have this for ours bottom of the page 2nd place.
http://davesgarden.com/contest/2005/winners.php?catid=112

gg3....very gorgeous!!! thanks for showing your beauty!!

This what you mean?
Bernie

that is lovely!!!! what do you have planted??

SnS, I have been avidly peeping here. Although I don't use this one for mail, I have hopes for some ideas???? pod

It's, from right to left, White Alyssum, Sky Blue Petunias, Red & White Geraniums, Bronze Marigolds, & White Gazanias. It' been terribly dry here & a mole liked borrowing there, so things aren't as nice as they should be. Also found lots of gravel when I dug the bed up. The drivway must have been over that way at one time.
Bernie

pod....love that great mailbox...; hopefully we can get some ideas for our 'real' mailboxes....

SnS, look for her in the Wildlife forum.
Andy P

Right now have goldenrod and Autumn Sedum blooming around the base of our mailbox. My hubby dug out all the grass and turned the ground over, added compost and then I put sandstone in an oval around the mailbox (about 2') on each side. Planted a daylilly, Autumn Sedum, a small yucca and some pansies. After pansies finished blooming, planted petunias which bloomed all summer long. We had to haul water up to it because we have only had about 2 1/2" of rain around here this summer. Everything is really dry. Had rain 2 days ago. Of yes, we also have an ugly yellow paper box located next to it. At least the goldenrod is tall and sort of hides it. Liz

My mailbox is metal, so I have seasonal, magnetic mailbox covers that I ordered from a company called Flag Fables. Here's their site: http://flagfables.com/catalog_thumb.epl?subcategory_id=23

The mailbox covers are really easy to use, durable, don't fade (at least mine haven't in 3+ years in a completely full sun exposure). I have a different one for each season. I'll be putting my fall one out sometime later in the week. The first day of fall is Saturday!!! Yippee! I'll take a pic then and post it for you over the weekend. The plants I have around it are young - just 2 to 3 years old and were planted from teeny weeny transplants, so they don't look like a whole lot, yet. I'm thinking of putting a few potted mums in there just to spruce it up for fall. I'll get back to you :)

Jacci

This message was edited Sep 17, 2006 8:47 PM

jacci...i look forward to seeing it!!!

Well, lookey here! I'm actually earlier than I said I'd be! Mind you, this rarely - if ever - happens, LOL.

Like I said, the plants are not really mature in the bed, so please take that into consideration. The grasses won't likely get a whole lot taller - a bit, but mostly they should just fill out and look fluffier. The sedum will eventually need to be thinned out. I planted them closely to make up for the puny-ness factor ;) The lamb's ear is 'Helen von Stein' and never blooms or gets leggy. It stays just like in the pic.

I like the shape of this bed, though. It looks nice for folks walking down the sidewalk and has something to look at most of the time. I put a few annuals in for summer impact, fall is as you see it here, winter isn't too bad since I leave the sedum and grasse up and the moss phlox and shrubs are evergreen, spring has the moss phlox and some crocus, early summer has some creeping baby's breath and the sedum start to look like little green nosegays. It works for me considering it's really a small space. Hope you like it! :)

Jacci

Yikes, ignore the weeds in the last pic :0

The spacing is going to need adjustment as the plants get larger. I couldn't work this bed too much before I planted because there are some fairly superficial lines/pipes running beneath it. I also couldn't build it up much because the soil simply ran off into the street. I built it up a little, but the plants are literally seasons behind plants I put in other beds at the same time. If y'all ever wonder if tilling makes a difference... tilling makes a difference :) So, it might be a while yet before I really need to move things around.

Here's my mailbox cover. Isn't it cute?

This message was edited Sep 21, 2006 11:00 PM

very cute!!! i actually want a mailbox holder like yours.....we have all that white vinyl stuff so i think we will get vinyl....but right now mine is that awful stupid mailbox that you see on a pole....awful...; thanks for the pics...great inspiration:)

Is it too late to add pictures of my mailbox? I painted this over the christmas/new year holiday week.
My DH gave me a grey metal mailbox for Christmas. Really confused me... seemed like a goofy gift.
And then he reminded me that I'd mentioned trying my hand at painting a new mailbox when I admired
one when we were driving one day. Well - I got Donna Dewbury book & paints and went to town!

View of end

And the other side

Too cool Tammy. Thoughtful gift, he know how talented you are!

Thanks. It was actually one of the best gifts I've ever recieved.
Tam

too cute .....wish i was an artist!!!

believe me... I'm no artist. Donna Dewberry had a TV show demonstrating how to paint.
I remember thinking how easy she made it look. Well - she really does. Pick up her book
and give it a try. I am not an artist by any means!!!
Tam

i have tried it....and she does make it look easy.....i could not for the life of me do it!!!