I love getting out in the yard and getting some dirt under my fingernails. Even though I wear gloves, dirt somehow still ends up there! Any who that’s the besides the point.
Tiffany needed some updates to her mailbox area to improve the curb appeal of her house. Her mailbox wasn’t in the best of shape and she had a weird off-center walkway from the previous homeowners.
So our first order of business was to remove the old mailbox and post and install a new one. No sense in planting pretty flowers around a rough-looking mailbox!
It turns out the post wasn’t in concrete. No wonder it had a wobble to it! We ensured her new mailbox wasn’t going anywhere with some fast-setting concrete.
While the concrete was drying, we removed the pavers that formed the walkway from the street to the sidewalk. We moved them around to find a new layout that would be pleasing to the eye.
Once that was determined, we used string to lay out what would be our garden.
We also used a tape measure to make sure we would have equal spacing on either side of the post.
We then used an Ames square point shovel to cut and remove the grass inside our garden layout. Tiffany was able to use the grass we removed in other parts of her yard! Score!
Once the area was clear of grass and weeds, we used a bow rake to level the dirt.
Before we planted our sun-loving flowers in the ground, we laid them around the mailbox to see how they’d look. We dug the holes for each plant with a small-head floral shovel and hand trowel.
When you’re picking out flowers or plants for a garden around your mailbox, look for drought-tolerant varieties that require 6+ hours of sunlight a day. Trust me, you’re not going to want to drag the hose or watering can to the mailbox every-other-day during the high-heat days of summer just to keep your flowers in shape!
We used some Gerbera daisies (my favorite!), a rose bush, Snapdragons, a few small Moss Roses, and other colorful flowers to fill the area. And since Tiffany’s new mailbox had a built-in planter on the back, we got to add even more color to this space!
And with the pavers in their new spot (centered on the existing sidewalk), we spread mulch around the flowers and pavers to create a beautiful, cohesive space! Mulch is great to keep the soil around the flowers moist as well as deter weeds from rooting themselves in your new flower bed!
Our True Temper wheelbarrow came in handy to move extra dirt from the area and easily dump it in some low spots around Tiffany’s yard as well as move our plants and mulch to our work area before we got started.
The newly planted area is not so overwhelming that it takes away from the house itself, but it certainly improves the overall welcomeness and curb appeal of Tiffany’s home!
It’ll look even better once the grass starts growing again and turns green! But until then, Tiffany will have something pretty to look at when she checks her mail in the afternoon.
Thanks for Checking In! ~ Chelsea
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