Mailbox Garden Ideas

hey everybody Michelle here from gardening TLC welcome to my channel if you're here it's because you want to learn about gardening today we are going to do a design around a mailbox and we are going to assume that it is in hot blazing sun I took one picture and I did three different designs so that I could just show you three different ways that you could do it because there are so many things that you can do around a mailbox but I thought I would tackle the hot blazing sun one first so come along today check out the three designs we did let's get [Music] going welcome welcome to all of the new people that have subscribed over the last 30 days I am so excited that you decided to join us on our gardening Journey hopefully you're learning something feel free to share with your friends and if you're new and you haven't subscribed please do so below our channel is all about gardening and we hope that we can help you be a better Gardener today we're going to do some designs are on a mailbox they're pretty simple I wanted to make sure that I touched on the fact that a lot of you have to Garden in hot afternoon sun and that's what these designs are geared towards so let's go check them out and take a look here's number one I am going to use this picture for all three videos and I know that there could be all different kinds of shapes all different kinds of sizes of what you could do around a mailbox Garden I liked this one because the bed was not crazy big but it was also elongated along the driveway so that gave you a few more options I also like that the outside edge of it was edged in Brick now you have to remember I'm in Northern Illinois so I didn't do anything too heavy duty as far as the bed itself goes because most of us have to plow snow on top of this and we get salt from the streets so I wanted to make sure everything that I put in for the first two designs could handle that now the third design I did that for if you're in zone six or lower and I put a few things that are a little bit different because you guys don't have to deal so much with all of the harsh winters like we do so let's just jump right in to design number one I did this one with a play on a lot of Pinks and purples and I did put that nice splash of yellow in there everything that is in here close to the end of the driveway and or the road can handle a little bit of salt and it can definitely handle snow pack now we did put one little Pine in here and we are using a slowmound mugal pine we also have some dayes a hibiscus some Sedum and some leat but let's dive a little bit deeper into each one of the plants and check it out if you've watched any of my other videos you know that I do like the slow Mound mugal Pine I like the shape I like the needle size I like the color I like its heiness I do really like this shrub I don't have to prune it it's drought tolerant oh my goodness there's so many things to like about this the shrub and it's only going to get 12 to 24 in high and wide and that's going to take it 10 years now it might get up to 3 feet but again that's going to take it like 25 years that's how slow this thing grows it does get those little candles on it in the spring when it gets its new growth but this thing is tidy compact rabbit resistant really good hardiness Zone and it'll be drought tolerant so it can handle being down there a little closer to the road in that full sun so we put this shrub in because it just check so many boxes and it gives me some green all the time I also chose to put a big bold impactful hibiscus in here now this isn't a shrub this is a perennial and it's a rosem malow so you cut these back to the ground every single year now a lot of people will say that they're bog plants but I have these growing out at the edge of the road at my garden center we do not add extra water to these we don't do anything but cut them back once a year and they are spectacular so I know they can handle the hot afternoon sun I know that they're drought tolerant once they get established and if they get extra water they can handle that too now this one here is called Candy Crush it's from Proven Winners and they have oh my goodness so many different ones that you can definitely find one that you like and they come in different sizes too they have a few that are smaller and they have some that are definitely larger now the flowers on these things oh my gosh they're like eight inches across and they're like this bubble gum pink and then they have almost like a near black dark red eye it's got a really nice colmer growth Habit to it it has bright green leaves grows in zone four through nine and this guy only gets about four and a half feet high and four and a half feet wide now the biggest thing that you're going to find with hibiscus is they really don't start to grow until here after the end of May when the ground really warms up and the temperatures are really coming up into the 80s then it'll start to put its growth on they start to usually get the flowers around the middle of July or the end of July but then they bloom for a super long time here I'm usually still seeing flowers going into September's so they really grow fast and they really are like wow you just want to stop and look at them they're so Spectacular Now you don't trim these back in the fall you leave them up to protect that plant and then you cut them back in the spring the other thing is you can dead head the flowers off when they're done blooming but you don't have to they will continue to rebloom and produce those beautiful flowers They're dear resistance and they will attract hummingbirds and they're are they're just gorgeous because this is so late to emerge I would interplant spring bulbs with this that way I've got something that's really beautiful in the spring while I'm waiting for this thing to warm up and start growing as it's growing it's going to hide the foliage on the bulb so that they can re-energize for the next year I know for me I would probably pick daffodils just because I don't have squirrels running out there digging them up and for me they seem to be a lot more more hearty to come back every single year and so I just think that those two pairings together would be fabulous I like the Elsie's gold it has these beautiful green uh leaves on it with these white edges and I just think it is so striking to have that variegated foliage on a sedum now when the flowers come out they're typically blooming towards the end of August through September you could leave these up in the winter if you're in an area where you don't dump snow all over it otherwise you can cut them back in the fall but the flowers on them are this really pretty pretty mauy pink color I just think that this is a great plant they're drought tolerant they can handle salt on them the snow on them they're hearty reliable they'll come back every single year they are any tall Stone crop is really a great plant to put at a mailbox Garden because they are just perfect for all the conditions especially hot blazing sun I have also put a day lily in here and this is a repeat Bloomer called happy returns they grow in zone three through nine and day Lise are so easy to grow they can handle full sun they're drought tolerant they again check all those boxes that you need to grow down there in the hot afternoon sun now if your foliage starts to look ratty and starts to look kind of worn and yellowish you can cut them all the way back to the ground and they will grow new foliage and look great the rest of the year the biggest difference between happy returns and another one that's a smaller size like this is the Stella deoro which I like that one too but the Stella deoro is like a gold yellow and then the happy returns is like a lighter uh like a sunny yellow so the color difference is a little bit difference and I wanted that nice bright yellow down there so that's why I put the happy return in but dayes oh they are perfect for mailbox Gardens tall short whichever ones you like leat is a prairie flower so you know it can handle being down there at the end of the driveway I need it to be drought tolerant I need it to be able to handle the hot blazing sun I also would use the smaller dwarf culer the Cobalt because this is at the end of the driveway it's kind of out in the open so if I try to use the taller uh Prairie native ones guess what I'm probably going to have to stake them or they're going to fall over and I don't want that so I would definitely use the shter culer this is a nice neat plant the foliage on it looks really good it's kind of fernny looking and then it gets the really pretty purple flowers that come up on those stalks usually in July and August we use these flowers at the floral store to make flower arrangements so they're really good for that they have a good vase life but they just look good and it fits our color scheme perfect I think this is a pretty easy bed that you could do it and I think it fits a lot of different shapes even if your garden wasn't this shape I think that you have to make sure that you water it that first year that you put it in though because even though the stuff that's in this Garden are drought tolerant they don't start that way you guys they need a year at least to get drought toering and get used to being in there and grow grow some roots and get tough so you want to make sure that you're watering it that first year keep an eye on it the second year and by the third year you should be well on your way to not having to do anything to this bed but keep up on the weeds fertilize it once a year and cut back your stuff once a year except for that little Mugo it doesn't need it so I think this one turned out really good I think it's an easy beginner Gardener bed that would look good in any hot blazing sun area eight hours or more so if you want to pretty up your mailbox maybe this is one that would work for you do you know what I like about gardening I like that there's Endless Possibilities about what you could do in any given circumstance so I'm going to use the exact same picture again and I'm going to create a totally different design and that's what's cool about Landscaping so let's look at design number two so maybe you want just a little bit more well I think this bed is a little bit more it is still drought tolerant it can still handle hot Blaze and sun and it's a different look now over on the left we've decided to plant Russian sage then in the middle we've got some beautiful grasses that will give us some movement over on the right we've got a hydrangea and some aliums down in the front we've got some low growing junipers and we've decided to put a chatus on the mailbox let's check out what we put in this bed in a little more detail two years ago I'd never even heard of this Russian sage Denim and lace and Laura over at Garden answer is the one who actually turned me on to it as I watched her use it over and over again in her garden I was like oh I have to try that and then I did and then I fell in love with it because it is the most compact neatest little Russian sage I've ever seen and the color on it is fabulous it's deer resistant it grows in full sun it's drought tolerant it blooms for a super long time and it has these beautiful lazy bright sky blue flowers all all over it and the stems are really strong so what's really cool is sometimes when you grow Russian sage they kind of are rangy and they don't always look the greatest or the neatest this one looks neat and so I think the beautiful color on this is the perfect addition to this Garden and we're going to plant it right around the base of that post of the mailbox and it's going to be perfect there I wanted a grass in this design because I thought that that movement down there would be really super pretty I chose a calamus because they're cool season grasses and I want the grass to grow right away and get its height now these guys only get 24 to 36 inches high but they get their plumes on them by June and that's what I was looking for because I don't want a ginormous grass out here I want a medium-sized grass I find that with the over dams the Carl Foresters the centers don't die out and I have great luck with these being very reliable and coming back every year now the biggest difference between the overdam and the Carl Forester is that's one that I used in Tuesday's design this one has a variegated leaf on the actual blade of grass isn't that pretty that variegation now it does have just a hint of pink when the foliage is new but you really kind of got to get close to see it this guy is going to go dormant In the Heat of the summer and not really do a whole lot and that's how it maintains its nice compact size the plumes kind of grow up through the grass and it does weep just a little bit but for the most part it's a pretty upright grass so this guy totally easy to grow you cut him back about 18 inches from the ground I don't think that the calam gratus are great winter grasses I think they're better summer grasses They Don't Really hold up well under heavy snow and by the time you get a heavy snow on top of it it's kind of flopped all over the ground so I always cut mine back uh the biggest thing is don't cut it so far back that you're cutting into the crown so about 18 inches above the ground is about where you want to go so if you want Movement try a calage overdam one of my favorites this Juniper is from Proven Winners and it will grow in full sun and it is one tough little sucker I'm telling you this guy is cold tolerant Sun tolerant drought tolerant deer tolerant rabbit tolerant air pollution tolerant salt tolerant it is great for erosion control and you could even plant this under a black walnut tree if you wanted to it does have this nice mounding habit even though it's a ground cover Juniper 2 feet high four feet wide Z bone 2 through S these guys would give me that color all year long they're not very big I just think this is the perfect little guy to stick in my mailbox bed and so I put three of them in there this is a great little shrub to put in the mailbox bed because it's drought tolerant it's not very big it's beautiful and blooms for a super long time and it can handle the hot sun now if you're in the South this might not be the greatest shrub for you but if you are anywhere zone six and above this is probably a great sh to put at the mailbox this is a paniculata hydrangea which means that it blooms on new wood and it can handle those full sun conditions I like the little quick fire because it blooms a month earlier than some of the other hydrangeas I have three of these growing in my garden bed I love them they kind of have a different shaped flower on them than what a normal panicula hydrangea has the flowers have an open structure to them so they make me think of a lace cap more than like a coned paniculata flower that you typically see they start white and then they age to a light mauve and then as we go further into the season and start gradually going into fall those flowers will darken to this really dark it is like a mauvey pink they are absolutely gorgeous once a year I trim off about a third of it and I do I trim it like into a little Mound I just prune it right above the next set of buds that are starting to swell and these have a great shape they don't get very big and I think this is a nice shrub to put down in the middle of you know a bed down by your mailbox because they will be drought tolerant once you get them established and they will handle full sun now again if you're in below zone six you might struggle with that you might have to put something else but my next design stay tuned for that I did a design for you guys down there in the hot South but little quickfire Hydrangea this is a proven winners one and they have a tiny quick fire if you're looking for one that's even a little bit smaller this guy only gets 5 by five I do like my aliums I use them a lot in design but they're so beautiful and they're easy to grow this is an ornamental onion and this is a summer Bloomer these typically are blooming in July into August they have nice foliage on them nice dark green straight up and down kind of looks like a grassy foliage or it looks like a chive actually these guys look good all the time even when they don't have the flowers on it and even when the flowers are done blooming and they just have that you know Billy ball on and it's not purple anymore they still look good these are major pollinator attractors and they look so good in the garden and they give you that middle of the summer Bloom that you're looking for and they fit all the criteria we're looking for full sun drought Tower and all that good stuff so I love aliums I use them a lot I know but they're so hearty and reliable and they're pretty I think the Nelly Moser is one of the easier claas to grow this is the one that it blooms early in the spring and so it gets new growth on its Vine and then that's where the flowers come from now if you're going to prune it in late winter before anything starts going on you're just basically cleaning it up and you're removing broken branches or anything that looks icky you don't want to do a hard prune because you'll cut all your flowers off now if you want a second flush of flowers you're going to prune it after the first flowers are done that will promote new growth and then it'll bloom again these guys can grow up to 10 feet tall and they're the perfect candidate to grow up your mailbox now you can either put a trellis behind your mailbox I have actually like put chicken wire and had it grow up the chicken wire so different things that you can do to get these to grow up the mailbox but remember Claus want their feet shaded so make sure you plant around the bottom of it and they want sun on their face now you're going to have to water this guy to get it establish and it might be the only thing down there that you're going to have to really pay attention to as far as making sure that gets enough moisture but mulch That Base to hold that moisture in and plant something around the bottom like we're going to do with the Russian sage so Nelly Moser if you want to try a Claus you've never grown one I think this is the easiest one there is to grow so there you go design number two we've got the beautiful Claus we've got that Russian sage we put a shrub in here that beautiful hydrangea movement with the grasses we've got the Evergreen going on with the junipers and my favorite the aliums all the way down to the right so I like this bed and if you like it maybe you want to try it all right are you ready we're GNA do a red hot design and I've done this one for you southern people now I know they say that you probably shouldn't plant red if you're really super hot because it makes you feel more hot but I couldn't resist I had to do one in big bold beautiful Reds and that's what I've done in this design so let's check it out a isn't that gorgeous 4 that's all I used I put a Lemon Squeeze penamon In Here I have a crepe burle which I'm so jealous I wish I could plant grape mural I know that people say they're a messy tree but I think they're so beautiful and maybe because I can't plant one that's why I want one so bad I also put barberries in here and you might or might not be able to plant these depending on where you live and I did a red hot poker because I think these are the coolest little plants and they are such a conversation starter so let's check out what in this bed if I am going to plant a barberry I'm going to choose The Proven Winners one because it is sterile and it doesn't go all over the place this is the Sunjoy collection and this is the mini maroon and it only gets 3 by3 yes they do have thorns on them and that makes a nice deterrent for the deer to not eat them now I chose this because I think that the red is so beautiful they do grow in this nice round little ball and you really don't have to do a whole lot to them you don't have to prune them they do lose lose their leaves and they are deciduous but man when they are blooming that beautiful red foliage on there oh they are gorgeous I just think that this is such a nice little shrub and I'm so sorry for those of you that can't grow this even though they have sterile ones now oh I think it's worth it I think these are gorgeous I never knew there were so many crepe myrtles to choose from until I started looking to do this design I actually settled on a Dallas and I chose the red dwarf it's kind of a new introduction but they only get 8 to 10 feet tall and if I was doing this mailbox Garden I would definitely find one that's a dwarf and that's shorter and I would prune out the bottom branches to make it look like a little mini tree I know they say they're messy but I don't know I would not care I would plant one anyways now they are supposed to be shallow rooted and I read that it's okay to plant them along the edge of the driveway because they are shallow rooted so if I'm wrong about this please correct me down below because I certainly don't want to tell someone to plant a shrub that has got invasive roots that will go underneath their driveway but I I read everything I could on it and that's what it said but I chose the red because I really do want to do this big bold statement piece down at the end of the driveway and I just thought this thing was fabulous aren't these the coolest little things I can't say the Latin name I'm not even going to attempt it I call them red hot pokers and this one is the Pyromania called hot and cold from Proven Winners these are such an interesting plant and they bloom for a super long time now you might think that that foliage on there kind of looks like almost a Siberian Iris but when you really touch that foliage it's kind of rubbery and it's kind of stiff and it's really upright so it's kind of cool looking when the flowers come out they bloom for a super long time these guys are salt tolerant so if you have salt going on they can handle that at the end of the driveway they are actually a super long Bloomer and they are repeat bloomer and I think that's why you get such a long range of flowering time on these guys zone 5 through nine three feet high two and a half feet wide I would I would plant like a mass of these down there because I just think that these things are cool looking check out this grass I planted one of these last year so this year it will be in year two so you'll have to watch for this when I do my garden tours but this is a penamon called lemon squeeze and it's by Proven Winners about three feet high and 2 feet six inches wide but look at that beautiful weeping habit on there and look at those plumes oh they are just gorgeous this really does have this bright green color to it and when those plumes come out they do have that nice beautiful kind of it's kind of a brownie tan with a tinge of copper in it absolutely gorgeous now what I like about grasses too is that most grasses are deer resistant but I just like the shape of this one and I like the movement of it and the Weeping habit of it that's why I planted one in my Gardens so I can't wait to see how this one does this year and how much bigger it gets zone 5 through nine that was the last plant that we put in the bed to kind of create a bridge and just soften some of that red that we put in there but I love this bed I think it turned out awesome now I know this color scheme isn't for everybody but sometimes you just want something Bolden in your face and I decided to create a design like that just so you could see what it look like now I would probably plant something like this because I don't care if it's in the front of my house house I plant what I like and what is beautiful to me so this is another bed that once you got it established it would be nice and drought CH inch and if you live in zone six or below this would be the perfect bed for you so if you want to try this one go for it and if you do I would love to see a picture of it after you put it in holy cow I love those designs I hope that you did too and that it sparked your imagination to maybe go out and plant Something In the Garden today don't for get if you have a really cool picture or something that you would like to share in your garden in the month of April send me a picture of that in this kind of a format landscape okay that way I can share those pictures during Garden gab which is where we answer all of the questions from the videos from the month that we just had I always do them on the second Saturday of the month at noon so make sure you tune in for that also if you are looking for some I don't know growing tips or you want to learn about vegetables and herbs every Monday night at 6:00 we have our real time growing series on vegetables and herbs you can grow right along with us all season long so make sure you check that out you guys thank you so much for watching I hope you enjoyed the video we will see you next time bye everybody [Music]

Channel: Gardening TLC

Views: 25,780

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Id: QyGbpZqcoN0

Length: 24min 27sec (1467 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024