My mailbox area looked so sad after Savannah’s long, hot summer. We have sprinklers that come on every night, but most plants get baked to death during August and September. We had a busy couple of months and I wasn’t around much to take care of my flowers. They suffered, and died. Except for the weeds–as always, they did great:
Earlier in the year, I hosted a backyard party and my jasmine and petunias were looking good then, but the jasmine bit the dust in July while we were on vacation.
I’ve used grapevine around my mailboxes for years. I just unwind a wreath and use zip ties and jute twine to secure it to the mailbox. It makes a great, rustic trellis for jasmine, morning glories, and other climbing plants. You can read more about the process in {this post}, but there really isn’t much to it (other than the fact that it’s SO messy!).
We’ve had a cold snap here in Savannah over the last few days–it was down in the 50s yesterday morning–so I decided it was time to yank the weeds and give the mailbox area a mini-makeover. Throwing caution to the wind, I picked colorful fall plants instead of my usual all-white palette. I know, I’m crazy like that.
The pink coneflowers (echinacea) are so pretty with the yellow mums. I also added a few white pansies.
Because I don’t have any climbing plants right now, I added some burlap ribbon to the mix. It’s great for Fall and when I throw a few mini pumpkins in the mulch or tie some Indian corn on top of the mailbox, things will be completely finished for the holiday. I buy 6″ burlap ribbon (all the craft stores sell it for just a few dollars) and just used a few pieces of jute twine to tie it to the grapevine.
A piece of florist’s wire helped me to shape a loose bow for the top and secure it to the pressure treated wood of the mailbox pole (if we weren’t moving next summer I would be giving the mailbox a new coat of black spray paint!).
For those of you who are wondering, the burlap actually weathers the elements very well. It will easily last the two months (well, just under two months) that it will be on the mailbox–assuming that I remove it to decorate for Christmas. It might need to be fluffed up once or twice, but that’s all.
A little mulch to top-dress the bed, and I was all set, although I did have to run to pick my kids up a little bit dirty and sweaty (just one more way that I embarrass them!).
I’m added the pumpkins and corn (or maybe a “B”?) later today and will show you how that looks when I get my front porch photographed and posted. What’s your vote–Indian corn or “B” monogram?
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