Mailbox Planters

I’ve been looking for one of those large old mailboxes for quite a while.  I was leaving a local junk store, when a friend who has a booth there was unloading her car from a recent estate sale.  I spotted it!  This old black mailbox!  And what a bargain, only $5.00. I grabbed it up, loaded it in the back of my little KIA with my other treasures from the day and headed home.  Since it was getting late in the planting season, I put it in the storage building for next spring.  I was looking for something the other day, and spotted the mailbox.  The black reminded me of Halloween, and I had just purchased some orange blanket flowers for my fall garden.  Black and orange, perfect Halloween colors.  I always have spray paint on hand, so I gave it a coat of black paint.

Since the mailbox is so large, it would take a large bag of planting mix, and I didn’t want to spend that much money.  I had some packing peanuts, so I filled the mailbox about half full, and the rest of the way with a planting mix.  Water it well.  You will need to add more planting mix, because the peanuts will shrink and sink down into the planter.

Next, insert the plant, and finish filling the planter.

Add a little scarecrow, and paint the mailbox with BOO.  After Halloween, I think I will spray paint over the BOO, so that it can remain all year.  In the spring, I may replant the blanket flowers in the garden and fill the mailbox with lantana and allow it to  spill over the mailbox.

Happy Halloween!

Karen