How to upcycle an old or vintage mailbox,..for the garden!

Get inspired next time you see an old discarded mailbox at a Flea Market or a yard sale.  Many folks have heard the idea for using an old mailbox to store some garden gloves or pruners, but these beauties have been taken a step further!  They’re  some of the best ideas from Flea Market Gardening.  A marvelous mailbox can be at home in your garden and be useful and decorative,…even charmingly rusty like this one from Darcy Franco.

Darcy’s rusty mailbox

Darcy Franco says, “My husband had this made for me. The mailman missed it the first time he saw it! I painted the leaves and trunk left the mail box silver.”  The weathered, even rusty look of the surface looks just right and it has the forgotten look of the tipped pot…flowers overgrowing and spilling out.

 You’ve got mail,…in the garden!

Julie Brown’s vintage mailbox

”When my husband attaches something it doesn’t come down.  He doesn’t mess around. Old newspaper boxes, like this Indianapolis Star, are great to hang on your fence and stash away your hand trowels, pruning shears, gloves, and I always keep a sturdy kitchen knife too. Then you can grab and go….´ Julie Brown says.

Jane Koranda’s tractor mailbox

Jane Koranda saw this ‘John Deere’ mailbox at the side of the road and photographed it.

Kay Swietek’s painted mailbox

Kay Swietek says, “This mailbox, which my nephew, Riley, painted, is in my mom’s garden. She keeps her garden tools in it. My dad’s name is “Mel”….see?”

Dreama Bender’s handy mailbox

Dreama Bender from The chicken coop Facebook page has a mailbox in her wonderful flower garden. Are there clippers in there?

Tina Wilson’s flower-filled mailbox

Tina Wilson sends this, saying, “The old mailbox was found in the barn loft, the stumps in the fence row, the nest in the rafters. Everything was found and re-used. And the old wheel is our handrail up the steps to the front door.”

Nancy Anne’s galvanized tub mailbox

Nancy Anne says, “My husband burnt a hole in the bottom with a torch and then used galvanized paint around the hole so it wouldn’t rust before putting the post through the hole into the ground.”

Giggleworks Design Studio’s ladder maiilbox

Giggleworks Design Studio sends us this mailbox set onto a ladder. They say, “Step ladder, recycled glass planter, mailbox planter, all inspired from this Flea Market Gardening page.”

My new mailbox project.  First step, find an old mailbox

Sue’s newest ‘old’ mailbox

When driving with a friend past her bank of mailboxes, we turned to see a workman replacing an old with a new mailbox for my friend’s next door neighbor.   ‘Hmmm, would they be tossing out the old one,’ we asked?  He didn’t know and said ask the neighbor.  I protested,..’no, don’t bother,…really!  Oh, no, please don’t ask!’  But my friend had already walked over  to talk to her neighbor, saying, ‘if it was for me, I wouldn’t but for you….’  That’s how this mailbox eventually came into my possession.  I love it,…it’s big and heavy!  I know just what I’ll do, and you all will see the result…someday. 

Lesson:  It pays to let your friends know you like old junk for the garden..

How would you upcycle mailbox in your garden? ~~ Sue