From the category archives:

Outdoor Decor

Creating a Napping Zone on Your Balcony or Patio

by Fern on February 19, 2010

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Everyday at around 3 in the afternoon I wish I could crawl under my desk and take a nap. Maybe I lived in a Latin country in a previous life, because siestas sound fantastic to me! It may sound a bit crazy to think about napping out on your balcony or patio now–though Southern California has been having intermittent warm weather–in a few months you’ll be thanking me for putting this idea into your head.

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How Long Should I Wait Before Complaining About My Neighbor’s Christmas Lights?!

by Fern on December 23, 2009

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Photo by Jenny Peterson

The condo association in charge of our new place has all sorts of rules, most of which I see my neighbors breaking left and right. For example, you’re not supposed to hang any planters on the railings of the balcony, but I have seen at least two people doing just that. And one of the balconies violating the rules has dead plants in the planter, so it doesn’t even look very nice. All of this talk of rules got me thinking about the ettiquette of Christmas lights. I’m Jewish and I’ve never put up Christmas lights, but I was wondering, when should I start complaining to the condo association about my neighbors?

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Grow Your Own Birdhouse: A Great Container Garden Project to do with Kids!

December 9, 2009

I’m pleased to publish Life on the Balcony’s second guest post, written by Janet Luke. Janet is a Landscape Architect who has a Masters degree, with Honors, in Environmental and Resource Planning. She has a passion for sustainable design, edible landscaping and permaculture. Her website–Green Urban Living–is inspiring many urbanites to grow their own food, [...]

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Using 2010 Color Predictions to Plan Next Year’s Container Garden

December 3, 2009

Nell of Secrets of a Seed Scatterer came up with a great idea that I think could be easily applied to container gardening. Nell got the idea to use Pantone’s color forecast for 2010 to pick color combinations in the garden. Brilliant!

Acording to Pantone, the three top colors for Spring 2010 are aurora yellow, tomato [...]

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Decorating Your Balcony for Halloween

October 23, 2009

I hate Halloween. There. I said it. If there was a bad guy for Halloween–a grinch of some sort–I’d be it. The constantly ringing doorbell (even with my porch light off!) drives me nuts and scares my cats. And then when I open the door, half the time I see teenagers too old to be [...]

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Sound Advice About Noise Reduction On Your Balcony

August 11, 2009

Apartment/condo living means living thisclose to your neighbor. It often means hearing all sorts of things from your neighbor’s unit that you’d rather not hear. And often times, living in a high density area means listening to all sorts of other noises from streets, trains, planes, jack hammers, and on and on. In addition to [...]

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Ahhh! Independence Day is Tomorrow, I’ve Invited 20 People Over, and My Place Looks Horrible!

July 3, 2009

If the title of this post describes how you feel right now, take a deep breath and sit down for a second. Hopefully you’ve got today off, but even if you don’t, the collection of 4th of July decorating ideas below are easy enough to accomplish before your party starts.

I’m tempted to make these lawn [...]

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Umbrella Stand + Flower Pot = Beautiful Spot in the Shade

June 8, 2009

When researching ideas for a client, I came across several articles on how to make a flower pot umbrella stand. What a great idea! Often times we balcony and patio gardeners could use an umbrella, but the standard umbrella stands are ugly and we don’t usually have room for a table that also holds the [...]

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Outdoor Umbrellas – Don’t Settle for Something Plain!

May 18, 2009

Now that things are starting to warm up, and the days are getting longer, you’ve probably been thinking about dusting off your umbrella, or perhaps you’re trying to find a brand new one. There are umbrellas perfectly suited to balconies and other small spaces, like half umbrellas, petite umbrellas, and offset umbrellas. Which is all [...]

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Interview with Jayme Jenkins, Owner of aHa Modern Living

May 4, 2009

As readers of Life on the Balcony know, I am very excited about discovering a new (to me) website dedicated to modern home and garden accessories, all inspired by the garden and the great outdoors. The site is called aHa Modern Living. If unique, modern, and eco-friendly are your cup of tea, you definitely need [...]

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Check Out aHa Modern Living!

April 22, 2009

I can’t tell you how much I am loving aHa Modern Living, a modern home and garden accessories shop. Most (all?) of the products are garden-inspired, so it’s a great place to find gifts for your gardener friends that are not the same-ole, same-ole. And let’s be real, you’re going to be buying little presents [...]

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Outdoor Lighting For Balcony Gardeners

April 2, 2009

One of the challenges many balcony gardeners face is lack of access to an electrical outlet. A great, eco-friendly option is to use solar lighting or battery operated lights (using rechargeable batteries). Until recently a lot of the solar-powered outdoor lighting was…well, it left something to be desired in the style department. But not anymore! [...]

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