Our little online diary covers both the big projects and the tiny updates, so consider this a small but satisfying progress report. Remember that petunia-covered mailbox? It went from bright and charming in June…
…to full and bold in August…
…and then to a sad, scraggly state by October:
Womp-womppppp.
The petunias were annuals, so they weren’t expected to last. Between heavy rains washing away much of the mulch and the flowers thinning into a vine-like mess, the bed looked tired. Luckily, the cleanup wasn’t difficult, and we were able to remove the tired annuals with almost no effort. Note: some photos were taken before we removed or transplanted a few nearby bushes here, which is why a few shots show the earlier layout.
We had a Home Depot coupon from a garden club mailing—“Buy 2 Mums, Get 1 Free”—so we decided to use it at the mailbox instead of the porch (we’d already bought porch mums a few weeks earlier). For about $14 we planted three sunny yellow mums in front of the mailbox, giving that tired spot a bright autumn facelift. As usual, Sir Squirrel made himself comfortable right in the middle of them (more on him here).
Even though mums are perennials and the petunias did a lovely job all summer, we’re thinking of bringing some petunias back in spring and transplanting the mums somewhere else so we can enjoy them longer. For now, the autumn look suits us just fine.
One issue we weren’t thrilled about was soil erosion after heavy rain. The weed-blocking fabric next to the drainage grate had become exposed, which, in my wife’s words, looked “reeeeal claaaassy.” The drain does a good job most of the time, but during intense storms it gets overwhelmed and the soil washes away.
To address that, I reused some leftover stones from our patio project here—the same stones that once lined rows of liriope we removed here. I stacked them to form a small stone wall beside the mum bed to help keep soil in place. We waited through two heavy rains to make sure the fix worked before sharing an update, and so far it has stopped the water from carrying the dirt away. Victory.
Visually, the little stone wall and the mums look appealing together. The mums could still use some additional plants to fill out the bed—something like the petunias did over the summer—so we may add more in the spring. We also plan to straighten and repaint the wooden mailbox post when the weather warms up.
Have you done any quick outdoor updates for fall? Were they mum-related, stone-related, or perhaps involved a ceramic squirrel?
Sherry promised to share more photos of the feather wreath that appeared briefly on the door in an earlier post here. It’s an old black feather wreath she picked up from JoAnn on clearance after Halloween—probably around $8. She didn’t bother to hang it properly; she simply placed it over the door knocker and called it a day. That relaxed approach is exactly her style.
Sherry had intended to tuck three leftover black spiders (from this earlier project here) into the yellow mums for an extra pop of black-on-yellow Halloween flair before we took photos, but she forgot. She did remember to add them before trick-or-treaters came by, though, and the kids who noticed seemed to love the spiders as much as Clara does (more on that here). All told, the mailbox and front door are giving off good vibes—although we could definitely use a new doormat or at least a fresh stenciled paint update on the existing one.
Psst—If you’re curious, we painted our front door yellow here and refinished the handle and doorknocker here.