Amber, take pictures! I sure wish I could get something to grow around our mailbox. Prob is it gets hard and driy and very hot there with the drive on one side and the blacktop street on another.

Yes! Pictures! We need pictures!

I like the way you described your style: "like it naturally happened that way, but with better plants". That's what I'm going for exactly. But then it doesn't seem pretty enough so I cram something else in there. Or I see a plant in a color or shape that I don't have (or don't have enough of!) and I find a spot for that too. Suddenly, it's all overgrown and overdone. I've somehow gone past the vision into chaos. Again. But I don't think I would do it any other way, except that I would vote for having one week off work each month so I could have time to dig everything up in a bed and replant it exactly where it should go.

Amber, it sounds beautiful. Please do post pictures. I've been wanting to do something with my sun-baked, mostly gravel mailbox area and could use some inspiration.

If anyone has extras of those easy growing orange ground orchids (epidendrums?) that I keep hearing about here and is going to Kate's swap this Fall, I'd love to trade for some.

Maureen

Maureen, if I go I can bring you some of the epi's, I have enough to spare. Just not sure if I am going. :o)

I also wish to continue work on my mailbox garden. Amber yours sounds heavenly and I would love to see pics. I am glad that yoru new roomate is understanding about it being your space but offering good valid advice. I am going to place an arbor trellis over the mailbox and plant either climbing roses or vines. I am now deciding if I wish to do a dry cacti garden with small cactus or whether I am going to plant herbs and perennials. I am still in the planning stage other than the arbor is going to happen. Most everybody in my neighborhood grows confederate jasime on their arbors or they grow gardenias at the mailbox. I want to be different. Please, please post pictures. Linda

Thanks Kat. I'm determined to go, since I've missed most of the exchanges this year and last. Hopefully I'll have something to trade that you'll enjoy.

The trellis over the mailbox sounds like an interesting idea. I'd worry though that the kids around here would be just too tempted to knock it over. They like to beat up on mailboxes for some reason.

Maureen

Hehehe! I have a mailbox garden, too, but not the same as yours. I have a garden that CAME in the mailbox!

(Because I order so many plants online.)

-Carol

Be kind to your postman and don't plant too much that blooms under, over or around your mailbox! It's attractive but it also attracts bees and wasps. These people don't need anything to make their jobs harder.

I wish our Waste management people would understand that Kate. They throw the recycling bins anywhere and it makes it hard for our courier to get near the box some days. It seems like they do it on purpose. We stack our trach and recyclables far away from the mail boc, and they always just dump them right in the way!

Hey Cindeea, I suppose I'm lucky to have a dear retired neighbor two doors down who after he takes in his garbage cans comes over and carries mine in to the side of my house. How about that for a good neighbor!!!!!

I always make sure that the plants do not cause problems for the mailman and generally the trellis is a little over the rear of the mailbox. He never would have to even open a door as the mailbox is designed to slide the mail in and it opens from the rear. I would be the one who would risk damage. I always try to think about how my garden affects other people. Thanks for the reminder though. Linda

wert-my neighbor across the street always brings my recycle bins up too since he gets home before my guys, but that still doesn't help my mail lady. She is so sweet too. She knows I get packages with plants and seeds and unless she happens to be off, she rings the doorbell and delivers any packages sent to me or leaves them in the front shaded planter.