Chapter 8
Outdoor Spaces
Go Outside and Play
Frog said, “I wrote ‘Dear Toad, I am glad that you are my best friend. Your best friend, Frog.’”
“Oh,” said Toad, “that makes a very good letter.”
Then Frog and Toad went out onto the front porch to wait for the mail. They sat there, feeling happy together.
—Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Are Friends
It’s only right that I’m enjoying my deck while working on this chapter—especially on a beautiful September day that’s one of the first to offer cooling midday breezes. Butterflies bob nearby, two shy rabbits nibble on leaves down below, and cars hum steadily along the street adjacent to our brownstone.
It’s a small slice of heaven on my tiny, tree house–like deck, perched off our third floor and filled with plants. This year’s virtual jungle includes hot pink Dipladenia (also known as rocktrumpet), every color of coleus you can imagine bursting from my window boxes, white impatiens that glow at night, a plethora of ferns, a type of euphorbia that looks like baby’s breath, and spring pansies in orange. I often buy black pansies too—I love their drama—but this year I couldn’t find any at my local nursery. Usually, I nurse them both along until Halloween and, truth be told, I buy extra pansies in the fall. And then, of course, there’s my lime tree (aka Brian Jones) and my Australian tree fern (which I’ve yet to name), both of which live outside during the warmer months and take up residence in my bathroom and bedroom respectively the rest of the year. Filling my deck with flowers and plants gives me joy.
Meanwhile, our brown wrought-iron furniture blends right in with the tree house theme. Plus, because the mesh seats don’t require cushions, I never have to run outside to grab pillows before a rainstorm hits.
Small as it is, I’m grateful for my deck, which invites me outside year-round, even during winter. I wrap up in a blanket or two to enjoy New Year’s Eve fireworks or just to watch snowflakes fall on my window boxes, filled then with spruce tips and fairy lights.
How about you? Does your home’s outdoor space invite your presence?
Getting Inspired
Ever since time began, our early hominid ancestors wanted to live indoors. You can’t blame them, what with the giant sloths (I love sloths but prefer the smaller ones), woolly mammoths, and saber-toothed cats prowling around. Oh, and the falling meteorites—let’s not forget those. In fact, you can draw a through line that begins with caves and ends with four walls and a roof.
Folks wanted to live indoors, at least, until they realized just how nice it is to pair a cold glass of rosé with a new novel on a sunny summer afternoon. That’s likely when hammocks and patios were invented. For a good long time now, people have enjoyed the great outdoors.
In this chapter, we focus on the outside spaces at our homes—wherever we enter and exit, where we spend time with family and friends, and where we rest and recharge. Your home might have one, two, or several of these, including:
- Portico: This small, covered entryway extends back to the ancient Greeks and provides a grander entrance and exit every time you walk through the door. Many feature columns and some are enclosed by glass on three sides.
- Porch: This covered living space often stretches across the front of a house but can wrap around two, three, or, in some generous versions, all four sides. Typical furnishings include rocking chairs, porch swings, and anything made of wicker. And some are fully screened in.
- Patio: This uncovered, typically suburban backyard space is built at ground level of tiles, bricks, and/or concrete, and likely features a grill, a picnic table, and a pool (at least the kiddie kind).
- Lanai: Speaking of pools, a lanai—à la The Golden Girls (“Excuse me, Krystle Carrington!”)—often includes a pool and functions like an outdoor living room, with a roof plus screens to accommodate outdoor living without the nuisance of bugs and direct sunlight.
- Pergola: This open rooflike structure is supported by posts and often used on patios for a bit of shade and privacy. Plus, it looks great with fairy lights, wisteria, and a hanging basket or two. (I have a bit of pergola envy.)
- Deck: This backyard amenity is generally built of lumber and hangs off the side of a house, although not always. Dressed up for a cocktail party or down for a barbecue, this space wears well every day of the week. (Consider it a home’s little black dress [LBD].)
When I was growing up, we had a large deck. Stained perhaps unsurprisingly in black (see LBD reference above), it boasted built-in seating plus wrought-iron furniture in yellow (Mom’s favorite color) set off by floral cushions. I particularly remember Fourth of July parties when my parents would invite everyone to our breakfast room with a table laden with every kind of picnic food imaginable. Then they’d throw open the French doors leading onto the deck. We’d wander back and forth between the indoors and the outdoors, and it truly felt like a party.
I also recall sitting with my grandparents on their screened back porch. Granny Dude loved to drink iced tea there, while Granddad would smoke his pipe. I’d often hang out with them in the evenings, sometimes digging in to the world’s greatest strawberry shortcake, enjoying the cool breezes, or watching fireflies flicker in the surrounding woods.
But it is my neighbor Ruby’s deck that continues to inspire me. When I was growing up, she had—hands down—the most incredible patio I’d ever seen. You entered through a sliding glass door where an overhang protected the grill and a built-in bench offered a place for the cook to bide her time while the steaks sizzled—it was an outdoor kitchen before that was even a thing. The floor was a stylish black slate—and the inspiration for my own slate bathroom floor. A stone ledge encircled the patio and a teak storage box kept her French bistro chairs at the ready for a party. Finally, all along the back of the patio was an arbor where grapes grew. Just imagine reaching up for a handful while you relaxed on the glider underneath!
How would you like someone to describe your patio, deck, or lanai?
Time to Freshen Up
For decades, designers and home builders have been creating outdoor living rooms, outfitting them with couches and club chairs, stone or brick fireplaces, flat-screen TVs, hot tubs, pool houses, and more. But your home doesn’t need to achieve Architectural Digest status for you to enjoy the great outdoors. You simply need some ingenuity and imagination, and to pay attention to your senses—seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching. If your outdoor space attends to all the senses, you’ll have created a place that’s hard to resist—for example:
- seeing your favorite tree or flowering bushes
- listening to crickets, spring peepers (“chorus frogs”), and a bubbling fountain
- tasting tomatoes and strawberries right off the vine
- smelling those lovely lilacs in the spring or that smoky bonfire in the fall
- resting your head on a cushy pillow on your hammock or touching the leaves of soft plants like lamb’s ear
Last summer, everyone on our block of fourteen 1880s brownstones got new decks, all built by Carlos, John, and their expert team. To say our neighborhood was thrilled is an understatement. While we brought these hard workers food and drink, they kept the mood fun and light, despite the construction, with great music playing. In just a month, they transformed not only our decks but also our neighborhood. Suddenly, we were all spending time outside and getting to know one another better than ever before.
As a thanks for our hospitality, the construction team generously gifted each brownstone four window boxes. Before this, while our plants lived on our deck, Ross and I rarely did. Now we’re out there daily, enjoying the space, our plants, and our new furniture.
Where are you on the scale of outdoor enjoyment at home? Do you practically live outside when the weather is nice? Or perhaps you enjoy dinner on the patio a few days a week? Maybe you like to welcome the day on the front porch with coffee and the newspaper, or maybe your schedule is so busy that you forget to visit your outdoor spaces at all. Suddenly the weather isn’t so accommodating and, once again, you’re waiting until next year to truly appreciate them. Wherever you find yourself, let’s increase the amount and quality of your outdoor living with a verdant variety of ideas.
Door to door. Whether it’s the front door, which happens to be on your front porch, or the back door, which opens into the garage, or perhaps a side door, which opens onto a patio, every door makes a statement about your home. Ensuring each door’s look is put together not only boosts your home’s appeal, curb and otherwise, but it also makes you happy every time you enter.
HL Tip: Similar to revamping your door, you can transform your mailbox in a flash with a can of spray paint. A personalized address decal in a modern font adds a thoughtful touch too. Or switch out your mailbox entirely. Dozens of styles exist, enabling you to match your mailbox to your home’s architecture—say, a traditional mailbox for a saltbox house or a minimalist mailbox for a midcentury modern home. However you enhance your mailbox, checking for the mail will be all the more enjoyable—even when it hasn’t been delivered yet.
One of the easiest ways to transform a door is with paint. This relatively small canvas can be transformed on a sunny morning with a paint roller, angle brush, primer, and paint (based on your type of door—wood, metal or fiberglass) in whatever hue that makes your heart sing. Think of it like the perfect throw pillow on that expanse of couch. Want a new look? Simply paint again.
My front door is a vivid orange, and since we live in one of fourteen identical limestone brownstones, it’s nice to be able to tell the pizza place to deliver to the one with the orange door. (If you’ve got a portico over your front door or a front porch ceiling, you may want to consider painting it haint blue. Even if you must abide by the rules of a homeowners’ association, that ceiling can’t be seen from the street, so you’re good to go. For more on haint blue, see “Out of the blue.”)
Here are two more thoughts on quickly transforming the overall look of your door:
First, as a kid, I remember many neighbors covering their front doors with Christmas wrapping paper to mimic the look of a present. Some even attached gigantic ribbon bows. But who says you have to wait for the holidays? You can wrap your front door for any old reason—your mood, a new season, or a special occasion, like a birthday party or graduation celebration.
Second, I really love it when I walk by a glass door (or a window for that matter) that’s been decorated with flowers or leaves with the help of colorful paint pens, especially made for drawing on glass. What a joyful surprise!
How else can you change the look of your door? With bling—in brass, bronze, chrome, nickel, or pewter. Hardware is to a door like jewelry is to an outfit. Consider the doorknob, the door knocker, the kickplate, and the doorbell. Oh, the doorbell! As a kid, I loved Aunt Lucy’s Victorian model. It was mechanical—you simply turned the small decorative handle on the outside of the door, and a corresponding bell on the other side of the door rang. I loved that doorbell so much that my parents eventually installed one on our front door.
Whatever your taste or home’s architectural style, you’ll find loads of hardware options at brick-and-mortar and online hardware stores. And don’t hesitate to look for one-of-a-kind vintage options at flea markets, yard sales, and antique stores.
Lastly, don’t forget the accessories that really make a door, and your home, welcoming. They might include a chair, potted plants like topiaries, a floor lantern or two, a fancy floor mat, and/or a wreath.
Wreaths are traditionally hung on front doors during the holidays, but you can use these decorative rings year-round. Wonderful live options include those made of flowers, bay leaves, magnolia leaves, eucalyptus, succulents, and fruits like lemons and apples.
Just as beautiful are wreaths constructed of dried flowers, silk flowers, herbs like lavender and rosemary, and feathers. For one that’s perfect for your front door, you might also consider checking online marketplaces for artist-created options made of surprising materials, such as burlap, felt, steel, and even recycled nautical rope. Want something other than a wreath? You could hang a handled Nantucket basket, traditionally hung on a door and used for mail; a plaque that features your family name; or a removable decal that reads Welcome or Hello!
A light touch. I wasn’t thrilled when a narrow pipe was installed to encase the wires leading from my house to my deck light. But then I bought eight-foot-long curly willow branches and lashed them on with florist wire, disguising the pipe and adding beauty to the space. Now I’ve noticed a neighbor has done the same. As I keep discovering, outdoor lighting calls for creativity.
Consider the light by your front door. Does its color, shape, size, and style make sense for your house? Sometimes we inherit an exterior light or lights that used to work for the previous homeowners, but since moving in, the front porch or maybe the whole house has been revamped. Suddenly, the exterior lighting no longer works in any number of ways.
Fortunately, outdoor lights come in every style—including traditional, farmhouse, craftsman, transitional, contemporary, and industrial. Finishes vary too, including brushed, matte, and polished. What type of glass do you like—clear, frosted, or seeded? How about your bulbs—Edison, incandescent, LED? With all of these options, you might start to worry over price, but replacing a light on a front porch can cost as much as five thousand dollars for an antique reproduction of an elaborate hanging lantern or as little as ten bucks for an old-fashioned yet stylish Edison bulb. Obviously you can find lights to fit your budget.
Once you’re happy with your general lighting, i.e., pendant and sconce lights, you can jazz up your outdoor space with task lighting (say, for pouring margaritas) and decorative lighting. Options for the former include lanterns, table lamps, and floor lamps. Some examples of the latter include the obvious: individual strings of fairy or bulb lights. But many others exist, including curtains of string lights, glowing tabletop orbs, colorful solar lights in shapes like butterflies and flowers, wired or solar pathway lights, and so many more.
If you haven’t used rope lights before, they’re a perfect outdoor choice. These simple string lights, encased in plastic tubes, connect end to end up to 300 feet. They’re also super malleable, so they can be draped in a tree, wrapped around a deck railing, tucked along the edge of a garden, run along a pathway or an overhang, or even shaped into a word or two, like Happy or Love, on an outdoor wall. (Just resist using Live, Laugh, Love.)
Even if your outdoor space is tiny, don’t let that stop you from hanging lights. For example, place a bamboo pole into a metal can to which you’ve added quick-drying cement. Make several, set them around your space, and then string lights from one to another. Best of all, these mobile pots can be stored when not in use and set up in a new configuration when used again.
Turn over a new leaf. A while back, I visited New York City often and always walked the same route. One brownstone I’d pass by regularly featured an oversized window box filled with ivy and three pots of pansies. Of course I noticed, because I love pansies. In the summer, the ivy was still there, but the pansies had been swapped for red geraniums. And in the fall, three pumpkins were featured, right along with the ivy. I thought the owners’ approach to their window box was brilliant—and so easy.
Growing plants doesn’t have to be hard. Or intimidating. If you’re just getting started or if your space is small, all you need is a plant or two from your local nursery or even the grocery store. Bring them home, plunk them in pots, and suddenly you’ve added life and greenery and color to your outdoor space. I place all my plants in papiermâché liners and then put those in my ceramic and resin pots. That way, when I’m switching out my summer geraniums for fall mums or ornamental cabbage, I simply lift them out and don’t need to wash out the pots. Composting is easier too.
If you love to cook, consider adding herbs to your plant party. Or if you entertain outside or plan to start, select two or three white flowering plants for your patio or deck and group them together for a mini moon garden, so called because silvery and white plants and flowers glow in the moonlight.
HL Tip: Overwhelmed by floral choices at a plant nursery? Use these three tricks to make your selections easier and elevate your home’s curb appeal:
- Choose flora to match your front door. For example, perhaps your front door is yellow. Then grow yellow flowers, such as daffodils, marigolds, or sunflowers.
- Select flowers that complement your door. Working with that same yellow door, these could be blue blooms, like delphinium, salvia, or lobelia.
- Or establish a color palette. Once again, a yellow door would suggest yellow, blue, and white flowers, so they’d all coordinate and complement one another.
Like to branch out from small plants? Consider investing in a tree or two. We all know that trees improve our air, provide shade, offer food and protection for birds, and much more. If you’ve got a yard, you’re golden. But if you don’t have a yard, you could plant a slow-growing ornamental tree in a resin container (porcelain pots can break in freezing temperatures).
Even in the frigid north, you can enjoy a container tree year-round. First, you need to know your planting zone. If you’re not in the know, a planting zone (there are now thirteen) is a geographic area determined by its average minimum temperature—key to a plant’s survival. Simply subtract two planting zones when you’re selecting your tree. For example, Minnesota falls in USDA Zone 4, so I choose trees that thrive in Zone 2 like a dwarf Alberta spruce, a miniature cone-shaped tree, or a hardy Amur chokecherry, known for its flowers and edible blackberries. What zone are you in and what trees could thrive on your patio or deck? Experts at a local garden center or nursery can help you find those answers.
Another benefit of a container tree is that you can even enjoy it from inside your home, watching it through the window when you wake up in the morning or noticing its fairy lights twinkling just before you crawl into bed.
Faux flower power. Not all of us have green thumbs. And some of us with green thumbs might be pluck out of time to nurture, fertilize, or even water our plants. Either way, faux flowers and plants are so good these days that even Miss Marple (or should I say Miss Maple?) might not be able to tell the difference.
Every summer a friend of mine pulls a fake cherry tomato plant out of storage. It’s in a seemingly weathered flowerpot, but just like those bright red and soft green tomatoes, even the weathering is artificial. This imitation veg plant looks so real that guests have been known to pluck a tomato right off the plant only to be stopped just before popping that little red orb into their mouths. No lie.
Beyond ersatz veggies, you can find fake ivies and bougainvilleas to tuck into pottery wall pockets, potted cacti and Boston ferns, hanging geraniums and philodendrons, glorious silk orchids and palms, ficus and pine trees, boxwood topiaries, and so much more. Best of all, these marvelous plants never require water or sun. Just dust them once a month with a feather duster.
Splish, splash. You may have heard that listening to recorded water gurgling—via a phone or white noise machine—can help you rest and even fall asleep. But what if you could listen to the real thing while lying in your hammock or dining on your patio? (For those of you who live on a lake, river, or ocean, you might want to skip this section; and, yes, I’m jealous.) If you haven’t already added a water fountain to your outdoor spaces, rest assured you’ll find lots of options to love—including porcelain, stone, and copper; tall or squat; simple or multilevel; plug-in or solar powered. You can even find fountains with built-in planters and LED lights for nighttime entertaining; others are hydroponic, supporting plant life without soil (water lilies, anyone?), and aquaponic, supporting both fish and plants.
Styles are wide-ranging as well, including contemporary (such as boxy concrete designs), down-home (like those created from a whisky or wine barrel), whimsical (a pelican- or frog-themed design, for example), and even magical (like a pitcher that seemingly pours an unending supply of water into an oversized bowl).
Best of all, you can create your own fountain in minutes with just two items: a ceramic planter and an electric pump from the hardware store. Simply fill the planter with water, place the pump inside, and flip the switch—so easy! Even simpler? Drop a solar-powered pump into your ceramic bowl filled with water. Then place it in direct sunlight and soon the water will begin circulating. Or place it in your birdbath—imagine the cute videos you could take of birds splashing in their own fountain!
Feather your nest. Speaking of birdbaths, perhaps all the entertainment you need is fluttering nearby—if certain features are added to your yard. Fresh water allows birds to drink and bathe, and a bubbling fountain, as suggested earlier, is especially attractive to them. Of course, our feathered friends have to eat too, so adding one or more bird feeders is a good idea; you can even attract particular types of birds based on the feeders themselves—for example, a covered ground feeder for cardinals and juncos, or an easy-to-clean glass liquid feeder for hummingbirds. Plants and shrubs should offer nearby protection. And a birdhouse is a good addition as well. A friend of mine has had her three-story, ten-hole virtual bird hotel for twenty years. It’s filled with young sparrow families. And hanging right nearby is a small wire basket of her dogs’ trimmed fur, a popular choice for weaving into their nests.
Make sparks fly. Around the world, people are drawn to fire like moths to a, well, you know. As we spend more and more time at our homes, friends and neighbors are gathering with us around backyard fires. In fact, since buying a firepit, Ross and I have started inviting people over many weekends.
In the United States, you can find every possible backyard iteration of a fire-producing construct, including Japanese hibachis, Mexican gourd-shaped chiminea, in-ground grills, and even traditional brick fireplaces with built-in pizza ovens. Meanwhile, dozens of firepits exist, in all sizes and price points, including wood-burning and gas-fired. Handheld tins invite you to light teeny-tiny bonfires to enjoy for up to five hours; you can even roast marshmallows with them! And let’s not forget those outdoor tables of steel, iron, aluminum, and concrete that feature dramatic gas-fired bonfire centers. Whatever your budget, there’s a fire option available for you and your crowd. If you’re handy, you might consider building your own—plenty of plans exist for relatively affordable and easy-to-build fireplaces.
Let it glow. If you like a quieter light, candles are always a good idea, especially when tucked into containers that block breezes. Of course you can purchase lanterns, which work well. But so do canning jars, jam jars, and flowerpots—just slip a votive in each. Or you might place a bunch of tall cathedral candles inside a deep planter for a bigger glow without the major flames. Spraying metallic paint inside the jars, flowerpots, or planters and then letting the paint dry before adding the candles increases the radiance and is a nice juxtaposition with such simple containers. And no, you don’t need to use citronella candles, unless you like that lemony scent. Citronella doesn’t ward off mosquitoes any more than smoke from other types of candles. (A better bet? Turn on a fan outside—mosquitoes struggle to fly near fans. My fan uses a battery from my tool system.)
HL Tip: For inexpensive yet charming party lighting, gather up six or more canning jars. Wrap each jar neck three times with floral wire and then create a loop to hang the jar with another piece of floral wire synched around the neck wire. Drop a votive candle, wax or battery operated, in each, and hang them from a tree or a stretch of twine hung from your pergola. As easy as they are to make, they’re simply magical at night.
HL Tip: Is your outdoor space postage stamp–sized? You can still enjoy it. Just introduce to the space these five items: a collapsible café table, two folding chairs, one potted plant, and a chunky candle. Now the stage is set for rest and relaxation.
In the winter, one of my favorite ways to enjoy candles outside combines balloons and water (temperatures must be below 32°F). Before a party, I fill balloons roughly three-quarters of the way with water and place them outside, along a pathway to my front door. Make sure not to overfill them or you’ll just have a pointy shape and no place to nestle a candle. Be sure to set the balloons upside down, on the fattest part of the balloons with the tie at the top. Shortly before the party, cut off the tie and the balloon should slide right off. Then place a votive into the top of each icy balloon shape. Elegant and easy! (You can also buy luminary ice molds—I bought one for Ross years ago and he still likes to make them.)
A banner day. A bright burst of colors, thanks to a banner, bunting, flag, or spinning wind sock can bring smiles to the faces of passersby. Adding one to your front porch, back entrance, or both can instantly lift your own mood too every time you drive up or walk in the door. Other options include a Mexican banner in party colors, a bunting in hues that complement your outdoor décor, or a banner that features a custom message, such as Summertime. I have one banner that reads Please Leave by 9. Truthfully, no one ever leaves by 9 p.m., but I think it’s funny so I always hang it up at parties.
My favorite banners are designed by David Ti, a world-renowned fabric artist who creates complex graphics inspired by Native American designs in rainbow palettes. Arrestingly kaleidoscopic, they can hang outside throughout most of the year, thanks to their heavy-duty, UV-resistant fabric. Only during frigid winter temperatures do they need to be brought inside.
Art of the possible. Twenty years or so ago, Minnesota sculptor Barb Ryan’s annual show would open every year on Mother’s Day. Her whimsical and humorous giant clay masks (e.g., a frog, a puffin, and a unicorn) were displayed at a plant nursery, each one hanging on a tree. Within days, they’d have all sold and the new owners were just as likely to hang them on their own trees as they were to add them to their walls. That story is a nice reminder that art, at least weather-resistant art, can live outdoors. Think of sculpture gardens. Myriad glass, metal, and concrete artworks are constantly featured outside.
But you don’t have to be as fancy as all that. You might consider creating a gallery wall on your back patio with themed images (such as a bunch of suns) cut out of magazines or scrounged up at garage sales. Or you could hang a vintage window off the side of your front porch, add a mirror to reflect various plantings in a corner of your garden, or even attach an interestingly shaped branch to a wall.
Found objects make great additions as well—consider placing an old screen door at the entryway to your garden, planting flowers in the basket of a vintage bike, creating an edge to your garden with upside-down wine bottles (so much prettier than plastic edging and earth-friendly too), hanging a wire chandelier from a tree, adding googly eyes to a spot on your fence, displaying small potted plants on an old ladder, featuring vintage farm implements in your garden, or hanging a garden gate or delicate section of wrought-iron fencing on the wall.
Time to Clean Up
A wonderful book, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, touts the importance of spending time in nature for physical and emotional health. I wholeheartedly agree. But not all of us can regularly explore the Appalachian Trail, the Boundary Waters, or even a local park. Instead, a front porch, backyard, or fire escape will do nicely, thank you very much. Spending time outside reduces stress, recharges mental energy, improves sleep, and so much more. That’s all the more reason to clean our outdoor spaces so we can truly enjoy them.
- Begin with your corn broom, wiping away any cobwebs from the ceiling and any windows.
- Now turn off the lights and gently brush off the light fixtures with a horsehair brush. Replace any burnt-out bulbs.
- Gather up any items that don’t belong in your outside space (e.g., plates, glasses, and bottles) and return them to the kitchen.
- On your way back outside, spray the glass door and any windows with your 50/50 vinegar-water solution and wipe dry. Now polish the doorknob with a clean rag or microfiber cloth.
- If you’re at the front of your house, spray the mailbox with the vinegar solution and wipe dry.
- Sweep away leaves and flower petals from the floor of your outdoor space. Or use a small, cordless shop blower to blow them away. You can also use the blower to direct the leaves and grass away from your sidewalk and back into your yard.
- Remove bird “blessings,” plus any other stains, from upholstery and any pillows with the vinegar solution and a stiff brush. Outdoor fabrics are sturdy and meant to get wet, so don’t worry about scrubbing away. If the covers are removable, feel free to throw them in the wash once or twice a year. Then return them to the cushions or pillows while still damp.
- Wipe down furniture, including glass-topped tables, with a clean rag or microfiber cloth plus the vinegar solution. Once or twice a year, you might also want to pressure-wash the furniture.
- Spray the water fountain and wipe it down. To prevent algae from growing, add 1 cup of vinegar to the water in a small fountain and 2 cups of vinegar to the water in a large fountain. Also, use a rubber band to secure a section of pantyhose—in whatever color matches your fountain—over the pump to prevent leaves from being drawn into the mechanism.
- Wind chimes, planters, and other miscellaneous items could all use a regular cleaning as well. Put that vinegar solution to work.
- If a grill is part of your outdoor space, spray the exterior with the vinegar solution and wipe down. Then soak the grates in a solution of 2 tablespoons oxygen bleach and 1 quart water; let soak for ten minutes or so and scrub with a natural brush. Don’t use metal brushes—their bristles can come loose and end up in your food.
- Shake out the doormat and rug. Or place the rug over the rail of the deck and beat with a broom handle to loosen the dirt and sand.
- Lastly, sweep the floor with your corn or deck broom.
- Now refresh your beverage, stretch out on your outdoor couch or hammock, and sing with the birds.
The Ten-Minute Clean: Outdoor Spaces
You completely forgot about St. Urho’s Day, and your Finnish American relatives are on their way over for the annual bonfire and feast of squeaky cheese and cloudberry wine. Never mind—you can whip your outdoor space into great shape, or hyvässä kunnossa, in no time. Most important is flipping the switch on that backyard sauna.
- Gather up any items that don’t belong in your outside space and return them to the kitchen—or hide them under an upside-down flowerpot.
- Wipe down furniture with a clean rag or microfiber cloth plus the 50/50 vinegar-water solution.
- Sweep away leaves and flower petals from the floor or use a small, cordless shop blower (or hair dryer in a pinch) to blow them away.
- Spray only the area on the glass door with fingerprints, near the doorknob, with the vinegar solution and wipe dry.
- Lastly, freshen up any flowers, light some candles, and prepare to relax.
My Ten-Minute Cleaning Playlist: Outdoor Spaces (Upbeat)
- “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” by Sylvester (6:34)
- “Outside” by George Michael (4:44)
My Ten-Minute Cleaning Playlist: Outdoor Spaces (Mellow)
- “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers (4:15)
- “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone (2:37)
- “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (3:18)
HL Tip: For a welcoming glow on a dark porch, loop a string of lights around a wreath. A simple battery pack with a timer will ensure it lights every evening.