Why not try folding your own chair? Start McFarlane's Lapel chair can be folded and assembled in minutes without tools or glue. Made from 100% recycled plastic, it is inspired by origami techniques. The Lapel chair is designed for inside and outside use and when you're fed up with it just dismantle and recycle.
http://www.stuartmcfarlane.com £146.00
Not everyone wants to spend the time and trouble to select plants and containers for their patio, yard or balcony. www.thebalconygardener.com run by Isabelle Palmer has the answer to this problem.
www.thebalconygardener.com supplies a range of planted containers in four styles, Contemporary Urban, Edible, English Country and Evergreen. Each of the ranges are supplied planted and ready to display.
Isabelle also supplies a range of garden and decorative items suitable for the smaller garden. Well worth a visit.
My father was a beekeeper so I was brought up with all the paraphernalia of beekeeping equipment. We had smart white painted WBC hives at the top of our city suburb garden as well as two apiaries at farms in the adjoining countryside. It seemed as a child to be a very magical thing, keeping bees in their own homes, feeding them in the hard times with sugar syrup and taking taking most of their honey in the autumn. My interest carried on into my late teens when I studied beekeeping as part of my training at horticultural college.
www.omlet.co.uk has with the introduction of their stylish 'Beehaus' brought beekeeping into the twenty first century. With the recent loss of many of our suburban and rural bees in the last year it is now of vital importance to bring beekeeping into the city. The 'Beehaus' is available in five colours, red, purple, green, yellow and white and a starting kit cost around £465.00
http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_services/products_services.php?view=Bees&about=the beehaus
The Out/In garden Chair is only £701, but that does include delivery, and is worth every penny. You wouldn't need anything else in your yard except perhaps a white rocking dodo!
'The Out/In garden chair is part of a garden furniture range designed by Philippe Starck with Eugeni Quitllet for uber prestigious Italian furniture company Driade. As the name suggests the Out/In chair is as suitable for indoor use as it is for outdoors.
Made from high tech moulded polyethylene the Out/In high garden chair has a very high back (the chair is 1.47 metres high) & looks stunning in groups. It is available in anthracite grey, white or a beautiful silver grey.
The Out/In designer furniture collection was launched at Milan in 2009 & consists of this armchair, an easychair & a garden sofa.'
http://www.gomodern.co.uk/store/philippe-starck-out-in-chair.html
A lot of outdoor sculpture can be very boring and straight laced based on classical designs of the past with no relevance to modern urban gardens. So we hunt elsewhere for interesting features to brighten our yards.
These 'giant rocking dodos' are really childrens play things but the strong design by Oiva Tokka, best known for his collectable glass birds for Littala, makes for great garden sculpture.
Can't find a stockist in the UK but try www.myurbanchild.com
https://www.myurbanchild.com/servlet/the-2668/Magis-Dodo-Rocking-Chair/Detail
http://www.ascomfyascarpet.co.uk/
For the ultimate in luxury for your patio or deck try an outdoor carpet from www.comfyascarpet.co.uk
'Looking for high quality outdoor carpets? As Comfy As Carpet is a new outdoor carpet, available in a variance of natural and trendy colors. With As Comfy As Carpet you decorate your outdoor environment in a trendy and colourful way.
Use As Comfy As Carpet carpets and improve the looks of your garden! Place the As Comfy As Carpet carpets underneath your lounge set or garden furniture to enhance outside living. On terraces in gardens or rooftops, in restaurants or wherever you feel that it can boost your urban lifestyle.'
As Comfy As Carpet is an artificial grass carpet for outdoor use. As Comfy As Carpet outside carpets are available in two different carpet styles: the Brillance collection and Reflexion collection.
The Brilliance collection has a pile height of 16 mm with duo tone fibres. The Reflexion collection has a pile height of 30 mm in a single tone fibre. Both carpet styles are suitable for a variety of purposes. As Comfy As Carpet carpets are available in a variance of natural and trendy colours: green, yellow, blue, orange, purple, beige, grey, gold, silver.
The Reflection Collection. The colourful outdoor carpet that will fit perfectly underneath your lounge set or garden furniture. The Reflection Collection has got a high pile, available in a variance of natural and trendy colours.
'Deadheading' is the gardening term for removing dead and faded flowers. The benefit is that it promotes the production of new flowers, lengthens the flowering period and improves the appearance of the plant.
The benefits of deadheading definitely make it worth while but up to now its been a rather boring and fiddly job. A new tool on the market called 'Deadheads', from www.deadheading.co.uk , makes the job a lot easier. These trendy miniature shears available in three colours, pink, blue and yellow, fit neatly in the palm of the hand and use a simple pinching action. They have spring action handles, making them much easier to use than scissors and carbon steel blades to retain their sharp cutting edges.
They are ideal for bedding plants, hanging baskets and containers. Just right for keeping herbs in shape in window boxes.
For those of us endowed with a very small garden we can but dream of relaxing under the dappled canvas of a shading gazebo. But wait I think I've found just what I've been looking for - The Exuma from www.tuuci.com .
The Exuma pavilion is only 4' square and comes with a decorative pagoda top and features mesh vents and solid aluminium finials. It is available in a option of two seaside stripe colourways.
Its just right for sitting in when the summer drizzle drives us to cover or just to hide from the heat of the hoped for midday sun.
The 'weather men' promised us a 'barbecue' summer of endless sun and blue skys but all we've had is rain and more rain just like the last two years.
The one benefit we do get from this aweful weather is the pattern of rain drops on foliage. They show up best on shiny leathery leaves such as the spiky foliage of Crocosmia.
In the frenzy of seed sowing this spring I think some seed labels must have moved seed trays on their own accord! My plan was to have pots of warm orange red Rudbeckias on the edge of the deck to give me lots of colour for the late summer and autumn. Everything was going well until my suspicions fell that the plants that were supposed to be Rudbeckias had very hairy leaves and did not in any way look like the plant they were meant to be, they were without doubt Nicotianas, 'Tobacco Plants'. I am very free at seed sowing especially with free seeds that come with magazines such as the Gardens' Illustrated.
Looking through my seed box I find that I did sow some Nicotiana sylvestris that came as a magazine give away and had just forgotten. Still I planted them anyway and I must say they are looking majestic. They are 4' tall with drooping tubular flowers of pure white and leaves large enough to make a decent cigar. I understand they are perennial in mild areas so I hope to get them through the winter.
Mistakes ain't always a bad thing.
