The question is, why wouldn’t you want to add some metal to your petals and do a little “hardscaping” before the season’s in full swing and you haven’t the time, nor as many choices, to pepper your patio with the pretty and the practical (not always mutually exclusive, as you shall soon see!):

A dining set perfect for tete-a-tetes. A contemporary communal fire pit. Sophisticated seating for your guests. Whimsical garden decorations, including floating votives and bilevel bird feeders, magnificent mobiles and I’ve-died-and-gone-to-Coral-Gables sculpture.

Some of the pieces mentioned are made from stainless steel that just won’t rust. (By the most canny of coincidences, I just discovered how rust-on-stainless is chemically impossible in a display next to the Deco darling of a choo-choo, the California Zephyr, at the Museum of Science and Industry.) Others are designed in regular steel, the most recycled metal EVER. Did you know that every year, North Americans recycle more steel (a lot of its in the 100 million steel cans Americans use every day) than aluminum, plastic, glass and paper combined? And speaking of aluminum, did you know that it is not only durable, but highly sustainable? Yes! Over two-thirds of all the aluminum ever produced is in use today, including the half of all aluminum cans [113,204 a minute—you do the math!] that are recycled. Learn much more at earth911.org

Not to change the subject, but…I’m always fascinated by die-cutting in general, but on metal it’s particularly sexy.

So what other advantages are there to spiffing up the ol’ backyard for spring and summer? Three words: big, yummy barbeques.