When it comes to landscaping, the mailbox area is commonly overlooked. Bricked-in mailboxes with similarly bricked plant beds attached are ideal for planting a mailbox garden. Mailboxes mounted on a post directly in grass, or near a curb, also present an excellent opportunity for planting a mailbox garden. Put to use, mailbox garden ideas will give garden-like appeal to this oft-forgotten area of the yard. Does this Spark an idea?
Prepare the Garden Area
As with any garden, prepare the ground. Deeply rake soil, removing rocks, old plant roots, dead leaves and debris. Freshen or replace soil with outdoor plant soil. For post mailboxes, clear away grass where the garden will be planted. Secure weed guard, a fabric that holds weeds at bay, and add landscape rock or paving stones around the perimeter of the fabric. Landscape rock and paving stone can be found at bulk rock sales locations or at home improvement centers and nurseries. Create a shape with stones for the mailbox garden, navigating around the post to form a circle, square, or rectangle.
Know Your Plant Zone
Become familiar with the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Zones are broken down by area temperature highs and lows across the U.S. Most plants in a nursery are labeled with zone numbers. The plant zone number informs gardeners what plants are best suited for their zone, regarding heat tolerance and cold hardiness. The plant zone number on plants usually contains information that makes it infinitely easier to select appropriate plants. Zone information for plants usually includes a reference to optimum height and width plants are expected to reach.
Choose Plants
Do not plant anything that will grow taller than the mailbox. Select perennial plants, preferably evergreens. Perennials will not die out after one season, and evergreens keep foliage year-round. A dwarf variety of perennial evergreen shrub is an excellent option. Examples are Blue Star Juniper, hardy in zones 5-9, and Hemlock, hardy in zones 3-8. These are non-flowering shrubs but will keep the small garden flush with greenery year round.
Add Color
Choose perennial flowering bushes such as Butterfly Bush and Azaleas for lovely blooms. Purple Ice Plant and Lavender are unique-looking flowering perennial plants ideally suited for small gardens. Poker Primrose, good in zones 5-8, has striking reddish, tubular blooms. For a classic look, roses always look good. Look for a rose variety deemed zone hardy in a color that pleases.
Pesky Pets
It is realistic to acknowledge that wandering pets will occasionally use the mailbox garden as a restroom. Place decorative rocks on the topsoil surrounding plants to discourage such activity. Sprinkle red pepper flakes on the soil if cats are the unwanted visitors, with the added benefit that a few small pepper plants may sprout.
