September is a good time to…fix up your mailbox!
Maybe yours looks fabulous already—the mailbox is on a sturdy post or enrobed with bricks or the mailbox looks newly painted. Or it has foliage at its feet—a mailbox garden of small shrubs, annuals, perennials or ground cover.
But some need attention. Look up on YouTube to learn how to fix or replace it or call a handyman.
Once your mailbox is solidly in place, consider painting it to accent your home, adding house numbers and your initial.
Some mailbox gardens need to be cleaned up first. I have learned that many trees appear in our home landscape that I didn’t plant! I frequently pull out locust trees, maple trees, Rose of Sharon and Bradford pears. If a “weed” has a really strong stem, it may be one of these. If you don’t like where it is growing and there won’t be room for it to grow anyway, pull it out or cut it off at the ground. And remember to pull the thistles – or spray with round-up. When Kent mows our lawn, his additional chore is to go on a search and destroy for thistles.
Then the fun part begins! A mailbox garden can be as minimal or as bountiful as your time and energy allow. Simply place a planter, planning on taking it in during the winter. The garden stores are full of fall options to plant in the ground or a planter – pansies, mums, ornamental cabbages, etc. Shrubs like the smaller hydrangeas and roses look great! Or make a display of assorted pumpkins and gourds.
My son and his wife moved into a new house and have planted a mailbox garden. Amy loves roses, so she planted a low-growing, bright pinkish-red rose on each side of the mailbox. Completing the semi-circle are early-blooming purple iris, orange and yellow day lilies that will bloom when the irises are done and some short, pink perennials. This is a sampling of the same plants that are planted in other beds surrounding their home. I hope baby Wyatt will love gardening, too! They will plant some daffodils in the spaces between the plants that will be the first flowers to bloom. Rabbits won’t eat them and their fading foliage will be hidden by the day lilies and iris. Three seasons of color!
Imagine how happy you will be going out to fetch your mail when you have a visit to your mailbox garden to enjoy!
