Dressing up your mail box

Dressing up your mail box with a raised stone planter can be a do-it-yourself project and it's is a way to: a) create another planting area so you can tinker with a variety of plant material b) enhance the curb appeal of your home c) add the look of stone to your landscape d) put a smile on your mail carrier's face!
Well, let's get on with it...
1) Decide how large and what shape the raised planter should be. Try using an inexpensive can of spray paint, you can paint the actual shapes you are considering to come up with ideas directly on the ground. The painted lines that are left over will fade away within a couple of weeks, but use a green or brown color, if you don't want to be too conspicuous. Think proportion when deciding on the size and stay with simple lines that aren't too busy and avoid straight lines when possible.
2. Remove any vegetation or debris within the confines of the raised bed site (turf, weeds, small stumps, large rock, etc).
3. Use a shovel to edge the outline of the bed. This gives you a place to set the first course stone below soil grade.
4. Pick out stone that appears suitable for stacking. You could mortar the wall, but stacking, for this application, is so much easier and correcting a mistake is not a big hassle.
5. Have all your stone and the soil or soil mix you intend to use as backfill near your work area. Start laying stone, beginning at the lowest elevation. Baffle the stone as you stack them and try to create as few openings as possible in-between stones. There will be small openings between stones by virtue of it being a stacked wall, but this is nothing to worry about as long as they aren't too large. As you are stacking the stone, use a rubber mallet or just your gloved hand to push the soil behind and between the stones to create stability.
Finally, save some of your thinnest stones for the top of your planter wall. They come in handy when trying to even out the top so it doesn't look too ragged. If you are going for a formal look, this may not be the style you want. Stack stone has a more informal, country garden look. Now then, you're ready to plant.....to be continued!


Keep your mail carrier in mind when building your planter. Your mail box should reach out far enough for easy access with a postal vehicle.