The idea behind a mailbox garden is to bring eye-catching color to the base of your mailbox, lamp post, or bird house pole. If planned properly, this garden should be able to cheerfully greet visitors season after season. For a truly spectacular garden, make sure to include plants with flowers that bloom at different seasons, cover the entire color spectrum and/or have interesting foliage or year-round interest.

It takes some pretty tough plants to put up with the harsh growing conditions surrounding a street-side mailbox. Because most mailbox locations are surrounded by pavement, this special garden takes plants that thrive in full sun and can tolerate heat and drought.

With the exception of perhaps one taller focal plant or a vine that wraps around the post, most plants in a mailbox garden should be varieties that stay under 2' in height. This way you don't block the view of your home or interfere with backing out of the driveway.

Before planting, prepare the area. Shape the bed, remove any existing weeds or sod, then dig down at least 6-8 inches and turn over the soil, mixing in a soil amendment 50/50 with the existing soil. Add a starter fertilizer to the entire area. This will mix into the soil when you plant your plants.

Remember, it takes 3-4 months for most plants to get established. For best results, water regularly and feed every few months during the growing season with a good flower food and your plants will reward you with long-lasting beauty.

We have a great selection of plants perfect for mailbox gardens. Stop by for a visit and one of our staff of nursery professionals will be happy to help you make your selections.

Blooming from mid-spring through early fall, it is particularly prized for its ability to attract butterflies, hummingbirds and songbirds. The most popular species originally hails from China, but buddleias are now grown throughout the United States.

Butterfly bushes are valued for their clusters of beautiful, tubular-shaped flowers. The blossoms come in a variety of colors including white, pink, red, blue, purple, orange or yellow flowers produced by different species and cultivars. Adding to their attraction is the fact that they are rich in nectar and often strongly scented.

The taller varieties add the most value to the garden when they are grown as a background shrub or as part of a mixed border, while the dwarf varieties look great as focal plants or as part of a colorful perennial bed. Butterfly bushes prefer to be planted in full sun locations but can tolerate partial shade if needed. They go completely dormant in the winter in colder areas but can remain semi-evergreen in warmer climates.

The butterfly bush is a fairly low maintenance shrub. Once established it can become fairly drought tolerant and needs only to be fed with an all purpose plant food once in spring and summer. It can be pruned back hard every spring if needed; this will produce a denser and more rounded shrub.

Every garden can use a few--and your birds and butterflies will thank you too!

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If you haven't yet, start planning your vegetable garden now. You need time to properly prepare the beds, as planting times are approaching. If you plant a garden, you'll get to enjoy the harvest!

To provide adequate light, place your vegetable garden site where it will enjoy full sun for the majority of the day. Without sunlight, your plants will succumb to disease and fail to flower, and you won't get a crop.

One of the most important steps in gardening is preparing the soil. Turn the soil to a depth of 7 or 8 inches, at minimum. If you did not plow or spade the garden site in the fall, turn the soil in spring as soon as it is dry enough to work. A good test to determine if the soil can be worked is to mold a handful of soil into a ball. If the ball is not sticky but crumbles readily when pressed with your thumb, the soil is in good condition.

Get a smooth, level surface by raking as soon as possible after turning, making the soil as fine as you can. This step helps to firm the soil, break up clods and leave a smooth surface for seeding. Soil left in rough condition for several days after turning in the spring may dry out and form hard clods, making it much more difficult to prepare a good seedbed. Regularly rake the soil to keep down weeds and to prepare a smooth, clod-free planting bed.

Vegetables need deep, fertile soil. Sandy or decomposed granite loam is best. If you don't have great soil, don't despair! There are soil amendments that will allow you to enjoy great veggies as well. After the soil has been turned and firmed up, spread compost and fertilizer onto the bed, mixing it in well. You can prepare a small garden plot for planting by using a spade, shovel, or spading fork to mix in the amendments; use a small tractor or rototiller for a larger garden. Raised garden beds allow for relatively easy soil preparation for planting once they are constructed. They also have an added benefit of allowing for good drainage.

In addition to good soil, vegetables need adequate drainage. If your soil is rock hard or drainage is nil, planting in raised beds that are filled with top soil mixed with a good quality compost allows for good drainage. If roots are a problem, plant in large containers with paving stones underneath.

Finally, decide on a watering system. The furrow method is good, especially with heavy soils, but it wastes water. Overhead sprinkling can work, but in highly humid areas excess moisture on leaves, cool temperatures, and a moist atmosphere may encourage fungus growth. The best way for modern gardeners to water vegetables is with a drip system. Most vegetables need the equivalent of an inch of rain per week for healthy growth. Drip systems use 40-60 percent less water by putting water where roots are. It can seem like a lot of work, but the increased harvest is well worth the effort!

Lay out crops in your vegetable garden to make the best use of sunlight. A good rule of thumb is to plant tall crops to the north and short crops to the south, and arrange your rows from north to south so the sun goes from side to side across them. If you really want to grow vegetables but do not get full sun, try lettuce, potatoes, asparagus, and herbs. Tomatoes will bear a crop with just four or five hours of midday sun in a warm, sheltered location, especially if it also provides reflected heat.

A wide range of vegetables can be grown in our area: corn, green beans, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, carrots, radishes, beets, chard, and turnips. As the temperatures increase, you can even plant heat-loving vegetables like peppers, lima beans, melons, pumpkins, eggplant, and okra.

Conventional row spacing is 36 to 40 inches apart, but spacing depends on a number of factors: equipment, garden size, and vegetables being grown. Rows for vigorously vining vegetables like watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, and winter squash are usually 6 to 8 feet apart.