Choices range from patio sets to teak benches and wooden outdoor furniture. Serious consumers want patio furniture that will be durable and enjoyable for years to come, and they choose wood as the medium for their outdoor furniture. Wooden patio furniture, made from those same trees that stubbornly continue to grow in any and all weather, is absolutely the premier choice for comfort and durability because it withstands heat, cold, water, and insect infestations.

Benefits of Teak

Teak has been used for centuries for shipbuilding and other construction purposes because of its incredible strength and resiliency. The ancient civilizations of India and Malaysia recognized teak for its potential as a strong wood that would stand tall in any weather condition. The Victorians recognized teak’s potential for outdoor furniture material as early as the 19th century and began to implement teak benches into their public parks.

Benefits of Cedar

• Durability: Because of cedar’s internal structure it is incredibly strong and to hold up in all weather conditions. The length and narrowness of its xylem cells gives cedar a wood that will last for years to come.

• Resistance to insects and rot: Cedar wood is impregnated with aromatic oil that repulses insects and snakes. This oil also protects the wood from fungi and other pathogens, making it resistant to rot. Outdoor cedar furniture provides a pleasant place to sit and enjoy an evening in an insect-free environment.

• The wood stays cool: Unlike plastic or metal outdoor furniture that trap heat and grow uncomfortably hot or sticky in warmer climates, cedar furniture stays cool throughout the summer heat, regardless of the temperature.

• Beauty and aesthetics: Cedar, with its cinnamon-colored heartwood, provides an aesthetically pleasing material for outdoor furniture. When left to age naturally, the wood turns into an equally beautiful silver-gray color. If so desired, one can maintain the original color of the cedar by simply applying a transparent stain to the wood.

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Robins

The best known songbird in North America, robins live everywhere from vast deep woods to tiny city yards, even rooftop container gardens can shelter a nest of robins if you plant a few trees or bushes in pots or planters.

Robins sing mostly at sunrise and sunset, and their calls are more noticeable in the spring when the males are establishing territories. This is also the time of year when dramatic territorial battles occur with mid air tumbling fights between interlopers and early arrivials. Males especially will attack even their own reflection in a window or a hubcap, and will keep these battles up for hours.

Robins Nests

Their nests are almost as well known as the birds themselves - a small mud lined cup of grass and leaves in the crotch of a tree or bush, with usually three ‘robin’s egg blue’ eggs in Spring.

Eastern Bluebird

Once a common bird, but, now rarely seen, Bluebirds have spectacular contrasting coloration with their blue back and wings, and orange and white underside. Bluebirds are largely evicted from their habitat by European Starlings.

Bluebird Nests

You may still be able to attract bluebirds with birdboxes set low to the ground, open on all sides, and close to a large wooded area, but even this ideal habitat may not work, since it will attract the much more common tree swallows that may also drive off the bluebirds.

Swainson’s Thrush and Hermit Thrush

All the Northern Forest thrushes have the same basic coloration - variable olive to solid brown back and a buff white breast spotted with olive to brown dots. They prefer low swampy ground or moist woodland floors, so the only time you are likely to see them in your garden is during seasonal migrations when they are abundant. But they are easy to identify by their calls - a series of flute-like echoing notes that hang in the air for a few seconds after the call ends.

Thrush Nests

Small mud lined cup like nests of twigs, leaves, and bark anywhere from 2 feet to 20 feet up from the ground.

Avoiding the first mistake

Most garden plans start with the borders and work their way into the beds and plants close to your house. Only after tons of work and sometimes years, do you get to the close in parts that you see daily. Turn that idea around and start with what you enjoy and only gradually get to the the outer beds and borders and you’ll save a lot of time and unnecessary work.

It’s all about scale, and small gardens close in really are more fun and less work. They provide privacy, beauty, and even add to resale value without needing the massive upkeep to discourages many new gardeners.

If you plant only what you like, when you like, and keep the projects small enough to do in only a few minutes per day, in a short while you will have your dream garden.

If you have a bare suburban lot and want privacy immediately, go for a hedge or some trees along the edges, and pay someone else - ( a gardening friend, a garden center, or a commercial landscape service) to put them in and get them started. Meanwhile your time is better spent on the spaces beside your doors windows or paths that you use frequently.

Avoiding the second mistake

Competitive plantsmanship is a killer. This isn’t a battle, and you don’t have anything to prove. Nature provides a huge selection of plants. Grow stuff that grows well for you. The same effort that goes into nursing along one sulky, sickly looking exotic plant that will never look good in your garden will provide a lush and colorfull bed or border chuck full of plants that like what your location offers.

A balance of trees, shrubs, vines, annual, and perennial flowers all growing and flowering at their own pace,will ensure that something always looks good, and will let you relax and not stress about those that don’t look so great.

Even though things like a dream deck with spa, the splashing of a waterfall or fountain, a sweep of roses, a perennial border, or a koi pond are considered high maintence, you can have one without giving up your job, your leisure time, or you sanity in the process.

This site will show you how.