Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Garden, fence, gate and mailbox

Some countries are fortunate to be relatively free of crime and house break-ins, but a great majority of countries in the world is not so fortunate. Further, if you are a dog lover, you have to fence up your garden (and your home) to keep the dogs in and the burglars out. Fence up the whole garden (and the home)? How are you going to get in? A gate of course! Now that you have fenced up the garden (and the home) you, your family and guests can get in, but how are the postmen going to deliver your snail mail to you? Mailboxes at the perimeter of the fence of course!!!

Mailboxes for the home and garden

curbside mailbox or pillar mailboxThere is a huge variety of mailboxes out there, but having fenced up your home and garden, your choice now is more limited. I have one like that in the first photo on the left - a column mailbox, or what I myself would call pillar mailbox. These pillars are on both sides of the gate with the swing gates hinged at the pillars, and of course, the column or pillar mailbox incorporated into one of them. Postmen do not need to get into your garden to deliver your mail. The mail box is now accessible from the outside. All the postman have to do is to ride his motorcycle (in my country) as near as possible to the column mailbox and pop the mails into the column mailbox.

curbside mailboxFor those living in relatively crime free countries with few house break-ins, they can afford to have other types of curbside mailboxes like the one in the second photo. Note that there is no fence. If you happened to live in a country where you can leave your garden and home unfenced, you are very fortunate. The house and garden looks much better that way.