Mailbox Garden Ideas

[pinksand]

Just a note that Confederate Jasmine is only hardy to zone 8.

I decided the cardinal climber was a bit too unruly last year so I've planted a clematis 'Crystal Fountain.' I'm guessing it will be pretty unimpressive this year but hopefully it will start to take off next year.

The ajuga didn't come back this year so I've planted a silvery variety of sedum in it's place. The other sedum I have in the garden has thrived so I think it might stand a better chance. Oddly I lost a lot of my ajuga over the winter... I'm not quite sure why since they're all in different areas and had been thriving. I similarly lost all of my guara this year. The one in this garden has been replaced with agastache.

Everything else in this little garden seems very happy this year and is filling in nicely!

[pinksand]

I wanted to provide an update as my mailbox garden has started to fill in nicely.

It turns out the ajuga did come back, but reverted to the dark leaves. The poor sedum I planted got taken over so I moved it to a safer spot this spring.

I also lost the agastache I'd planted in place of the guara... I'm beginning to think the spot is cursed. I actually think it may just be too moist so I've planted cardinal plant (lebelia cardinalis) in the hopes that it will appreciate the moisture and thrive in this spot. In the photo you'll see it's the bare spot just behind/left of the rock.

My favorite thing about this garden is that everything takes turns blooming... first the daffodils, next clematis, then the weigela, next the pensetmon, hopefully then the lobelia, coreopsis, and cone flowers. This variety of cone flower is just the cheeriest! It's a double pink variety and seems to bloom forever! Then finally the aster blooms and the northern sea oats put out their seeds. I've just been really pleased with this garden!

Also, this clematis is so stunning and visible from very far away, which was my goal.




What started out as such a hodge podge of random sale plants has become one of my favorite beds. When neighbors ask which house is ours they always say, "Oh you're the mailbox house!" The wheels have tiny solar string lights on them and look nice at night, illuminating the lavender blooms of the clematis.

[pinksand]

Since none of my photobucket photos are showing up anymore, I figured I'd re-post a photo directly on the forum.

This photo is from earlier this year so the clematis is now climbing the top wheel and the flowers are done. The deer kept eating my asters so I didn't get much chance to enjoy them this year. I'd like to replace them with another fall bloomer in the spring. Other than that, everything is still doing well!

This clematis blooms the best in spring but puts out a few blooms here and there in the summer and another little wave of blooms in the fall! It seems really happy in this spot.

[applestar]

I have an on-going attempt to train/prune stepover espalier around the mailbox garden —

Subject: Mailbox Garden Ideas

...
Can I show my stepovers? I think they are starting to take shape.

^^^ that was from 2014. I decided to venture out and assess what needs to be done for the mailbox garden and discovered to my delight that some of the stepovers are starting to bloom — I Think maybe for the first time unless I posted elsewhere that they bloomed last spring? (I can’t remember....)

[2-Acres-NorthWest]

We planted a lot of sedum cuttings and sempervivums in a planter by the mailbox. The planter is just a stack of curved, scalloped edgings meant to surround trees, The sedum cuttings were ones we had in other places around the yard. I just cut off stems about four to eight inches long, made holes in the soil with a stuck, and stuck them in 1/2 of their length. The sempervivum were from my dad's house, he got them from his parents who got them from their parents, so they go back a century. So they are kind of the ultimate pass-along plants.

With no special care, they grew, filled in, and bloomed. These get no water at all now. I chose different colors of sedums for contrast. This is one of my favorite things to do with containers or limited area groundcovers.