Garden Furniture

Ginkgo Biloba garden table and chairs by sunshinesyrie

Now that winter seems almost over and with the woodchuck predicting an early spring, this GardenLady is dreaming both day and night about her garden and what changes may take place. Since the garden is really an outdoor room, to decorate is the fun thing to do. There one can sit on a nice chair in the hot afternoon with perhaps a nice cool drink in hand, my favorite is lemon or limeade,* and admire one’s flowers and garden.

I know that there will be great outdoor garden furniture ideas at the garden shows that will soon be taking place around this country and around the world. If one is handy one can build some interesting outdoor furniture for your garden and with pretty homemade pillows, your place will look unique. Alas, I am not that handy. So I have been browsing the internet to see what ideas are new in outdoor furniture for 2011.

First I looked at the Google link for garden furniture on Google Images. I was so excited about some of the new rattan/wicker furniture that has been coming out. My favorite is from a site called Alibaba that shows furniture that is used as tables and chairs, but when one wants to store them, they fit together to look like a piece of sculpture- a ball or an urn are the two shapes I saw. I don’t know how pricey the outdoor furniture is, but it is nice to dream.

*My recipe for lemonade or limeade is to wash some lemons or limes or a combination of the two.

Cut the citrus fruit in half (save the rinds) and squeeze them- enough to make about 1 cup juice.

Pour the juice into a standard size pitcher (I like glass) and almost fill the pitcher with water-leave some room to add ice.

Put the empty rinds of the washed lemons or limes into the pitcher with the juice and water.

Starting with 1/2 cup of sugar -add it to the water/ juice mix.

Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Taste to see if it is sweet enough.

Slowly keep adding more sugar, stirring and tasting. You may need up to 1 cup of sugar depending on how sweet you like it.

Add ice cubes if you have room in the pitcher or refrigerate. It is the easiet drink to prepare and it is healthy for you if you don’t use too much sugar.

You can add orange juice and the orange rind if you like. You can put in some fresh berries or cherries to make it look more festive and give the lemonade or limeade a slightly different flavor.