Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Mailbox Plantings for Drought


When we bought our house in 2005, our mailbox was covered in several overgrown shrubs. A friend's daughter actually asked me if a racoon lived in our mailbox bed! Three years, one new mailbox and numerous outgoing loads of white landscaping rocks later... I embarked this week on replanting the mailbox.

Last fall, I purchased 5 Gladiator Alliums from Terra Ceia Farms (a NC business out of Pantego). They are in the garlic/onion family and should produce 3 - 4' tall softball sized pink blooms. They are coming up and the foliage looks great! I'm optimistic for good blooms in May. I'm considering moving them since I hear they can multiply and right now they aren't placed to bloom in mass (anyone with advice on when and how to move them, please let me know!)

I consulted my plant books to find other hardy and drought tolerant plants to accompany this dry setting. Here's what I decided on:

  • Autumn Joy Sedum (1) - I love the idea of fall color and these are one of the most drought tolerant plants around. The dark green foliage also compliments the grays and blues nicely.
  • Autumn Fire Sedum (2) - Similar to the autumn joy and boasted to be more brillant in color... we'll see.
  • Artemesia (Silver Mound) (3) - Great silvery foliage and requires little water.
  • Spanish Lavender (1) - A neighbor put this in last year and has completely neglected it and it looks fabulous. It's an herb, so I figure its got to be tough! I also love the purple blooms.
  • Purple Queen (2) - Great purple foliage and triangular shape to compliment the greens well.
  • Pink Dianthus (Firewitch) (3) - Great shorter plant for the front of the bed. I'm hoping the color will compliment the allium nicely.
I'm new to "sun" gardening (with the exception of a 8X6 herb garden, this is all the sun we have). We'll see how it goes.

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