I had an abundance of daffodil and tulip bulbs so I stuck a few in there but aside from that - nothing. I was thinking I need a little something at the base of mine, too. One of my neighbors has a red yarrow growing around theirs. Simple but very nice

Years ago my cousin that lives in Ga. often spoke about her"mailbox flower" and since I'm a flower lover, I asked her what flower was she talking about.? She didn't know it by any other name. I had her to describe it in color and growth habit, I figured out she might be talking about a clematis vine. Quickly, her eyes would light up and she'd say "Yes, that's it!" There are many varieties of clematis..and different pruning requirements. What about morning glories? I won't buy another clematis unless it is from Group #3..Is your mail box near the road or close to the house? Do you live in an area where you would have to deal with snow removal chemicals? Did you want to plant perennials there or save that area for annuals or incorporate both in it? If your mail box is located near a highway where you have rural delivery, you might want to chose plants that don't require a lot of attention but maybe deadheading once a week with lots of color and then in droughts, you have to haul watering cans full of water or drag a hose a long ways to water them, that's something else to think about. I'm anxious to see what you come up with. Black-eye susans and thread leaf coreopis give off a lot of color all summer long. I grew Prairie Sun rudbeckias last year from seed and they have been in constant bloom since Spring and are very bright and cheery. They do grow 24-30 in. tall. My coneflowers have been so beautiful this summer and the butterflies and bees have been enjoying them tremendously. They require just deadheading maybe once a week. Snapdragons are another long lasting flower. Marigolds too.
Flowering Vinca, short zinnias, angelonias would give you nice color yet low maintainence.

My mailbox is surrounded by irises. Not much to see this time of year!

Sandy

I do not have anything but grass growing around our mailbox but plan to put in a garden this year or next. It is a prime full sun spot and I am wondering how long I can make the garden without it seeming too out of place. I plan to put a couple peonies there--I am struggling with where to put my peonies, most of them need to be moved for on reason or another. Other than that though, I am not sure.

There is a half barrel planter next to our mail box. I put sedum Voodoo there in May. It is doing well so far, tolerating the intense heat and UV well. It put out a few flowers, but I didn't expect much this soon. I'm happy that so far it hasn't been eaten by rabbits who ate my bigger sedums. I hope to have pictures next year.

Cheryl

I have a Snowcap daisy, the only one from an original planting of 7 or 8 to survive, a Stella d'Oro daylily that needs to be divided, as it isn't reblooming this year, a Baja daylily that may get composted if I don't find a way to keep the deer from eating the buds because the foliage gets too ratty to put up with if I can't enjoy the flowers, and a Tabitha chrysanthemum that I haven't pinched back and will probably bloom next week. Sounds like a mess, doesn't it?
I used to fill in with pentas and angelonias, but the perennials have filled up all the space.

TotallyConfused

My mailbox is inside my porch. I do have 3 cacti on my porch near the mailbox. Does that count?

Kevin

I planted a Variegated Japanese Silver Grass around my Brother's mailbox (Miscanthus sinensis 'Dixieland'). It looks great. Doesn't get too tall. A bit floppy after a heavy rain, but not too bad.

LOL Kevin.

I have no mailbox garden, and don't think I ever will. My driveway is in a blind curve on a road where people do 50 miles per hour. I have on several occasions inched out of my driveway ever so slowly, only to be almost hit by a UPS truck and a garbage truck, not to mention the cars. You know its bad when you can't see a garbage truck 40 feet away!

While I have to live with the telephone pole and my neighbor's wall contributing to the blocked view, I need to keep the area as clear as possible. I tried planting creeping phlox and sedum there (it a very hot, very sunny, very dry slope) but the varieties didn't take. I'm going to try another sedum.

I do have some irises, daylilies, and a row of Ivory Halo dogwoods set back some, but nothing around the mailbox itself. Well, nothing but weeds, grass and a few scraggly sedum survivors!

Dee

Well, this is so interesting to see what everyone has planted! While driving, I saw a house that has a variety of Setcreasea planted around their mailbox and I thought that looked really neat but not sure I'm going in that direction. I'm going to pass on the clematis because that is really over done here. I want something different--don't we all! A type of grass seems like a very interesting idea, I'll have to consider that.

Didn't really think about the chemicals thing with snow clearing. We don't really get a lot of snow here but every once in awhile they have to clear the road. I'll have to consider that as well. You guys are always such great help!

Hmm, we may not need mailboxes soon.... was just reading in the paper this morning that the USPS may do away with house-to-house delivery, instead delivering to a "central" area (in the neighborhood, I guess?).

Will the mailbox garden become a thing of the past? :)

Dee

Here's a picture of my former mailbox garden:

{{gwi:256017}}

And here's a close up:

{{gwi:227147}}

The reason it's the former mailbox garden is because by the time I bought the house, wood bees had already invaded the pole the mailbox sat on. The year after this picture was taken, the mailbox had to be moved to the other side of the driveway. This garden was renamed the cottage garden. Curently there's nothing surounding the actual mailbox at this point except lawn (more accurately green weeds.)

I use the following:

Hesperaloe parviflora Red & Yellow
Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit'
Echinacea Double Scoop 'Raspberry'
Gaillardia 'Moxie'
Gaillardia - Yellow
Kniphofia 'Papaya Popsicle'
Lemon Drop Primrose Oenothera
Agastache Summer Series

This hasn't filled in yet, but it should look good when my Agastache and Gaillardia get more full. The Hesperaloe has been there 4 years and the blooms last so long! I like the red and yellow together.

echinaceamaniac, I love it. So nice and cheerful.

(side note - anyone have any idea why this site keeps turning photos sideways? very annoying.)

It's not the site turning the photos, it's the direction the photographers were holding their phones or iPads when they took the photo. Their devices can identify the correct orientation for the photo, but this site will orient them in the direction the photo "should" have faced if the device were held in the correct direction when the photo was taken. Similar devices can orient the photos correctly. They all look fine on my iPad. But PCs can't adjust, since they only see the world from one orientation.

Martha

Aha! I only own a very primative cell which I never use if I can help it, so that never would have occurred to me.

Thanks!

I took my photo from the normal orientation. This site just isn't programmed to handle iPhone photos properly. Other sites don't do that. I posted that same photo elsewhere and all of them did just perfectly.

Yeah, its not that the PC can't compensate. My Asus transformer tablet shows them sideways, too. This site just doesn't correctly process mobile device photos.

I was going to plant a clematis or other vine on mine...but then one day I was watching all of the bees happily buzzing around in my regular garden and thought...would I want them inches from my hand if I were delivering the mail? Then I decided to leave it grass for now, and maybe plant lower growers later. Whatever it will be, will need to be able to tolerate full sun, only rain for watering and some salt from the road.

I plant daisies in a turquoise post planter called snappot. I can change it up as much as I want then take it down in the winter. I like that I can change the look of the pot each year.

Mine was grass and iris but the grass got too big by the time fall rolled around.

This year I took out the grass, thinned the iris and popped in a few canna. The fennel and agastache love the space and spread out into the hole left by the grass.

Still needs work though. The fennel is covered with pollinators and I trimmed it back away from the mailbox so the mailman has a nice safe zone.