My Favorite Summer Outdoor Finds
- Nancy Lane
- Aug 6
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 8
I saw a funny meme the other day on an account I follow, talking about the weather where they live. It said "This is not the heat Whitney Houston wanted to feel with somebody." Honey, I'm with you! Here in Houston we're pretty much holding at what we refer to as "slap you in your face when you walk out the front door" heat and humidity. I keep it short and tell anyone who has not experienced our weather that it's as hot as a sauna. The oppressive heat has me wanting to stay inside in the air conditioning as much as possible but that doesn't mean I don't want my back garden looking its best at all times, even if I barely sit outside these summer months.
Like the interior of my house, I consider my front flower beds and backyard garden to be my laboratory, a place to play and experiment in. I love nothing better than coming home from a morning run then heading into the back garden to dive into digging in to the dirt and tidying up or tending to my plants.
I've shared my favorite local gardening stores and products in this post that I purchase without fail every spring to make my garden sing. We're long past the sweet days of spring and I've been meaning to write this post for a few months now, so in today's "better late than never post, I'm sharing my favorite summer outdoor finds for my backyard. Enjoy!
My Favorite Summer Outdoor Finds
First things first for me any season is always a refresh of any potted plants that are looking kind of sad from previous seasons. I'm not one to throw away plants that are in good condition so I try to transplant things when possible. This year I was on the hunt for oversized clay pots that would accommodate me moving plants around and putting multiples next to each other so that I could have a thriller, spiller, and a filler. IYKYK but if you don't, I'll explain those terms in one sec. First you gotta see the new planter I found.
New Oversized Planter Pots
I knew I wanted to stay under $100 a pot because I love plants and if you love plants too, you'll know that it can be a problem because things add up and I never met a pretty plant or pot that I could say no to. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right. But smart girl that I am, with the hubs whose favorite word is budget, I knew I had to give myself a goal to stay under so one honey it was. I looked high and low and found and even ordered a couple to try but I wasn't happy until I went to a local big box retailer. I know, say it isn't so y'all. I went to Lowes. I went in thinking I was going to buy one pot and boy am I glad I checked it out in person first. It was lovely but it was so dang heavy I would have had to call in the Marines to move it for me. So I walked around undeterred and saw this lovely...
The sheer size of this clay planter took my breath away. I love a big outdoor pot and I cannot lie. Best part? They were and still are on sale and 50% off to boot. You're welcome! I love you too!
If you know the children's book "If you give a mouse a cookie" then you'll know what happened next. I knew I wanted two pots but they had four on the rack available and since they were on sale, it was really like buy one get one free anyway so why not all four I thought as I patted myself on the back. Then I felt the need to buy more plants, you know, to fill the extra pots. ha. It's kind of like runner's math too...if you can run 3, you can run 6, and if you can run 6, you can run a half marathon...which is how I wandered around putting all kind of plant material on my flat bed trolly until I ran right into this gorgeousness.
Hello you devilishly good looking thriller, spiller, filler trifecta of sorts! Now I don't have a link for you for this one BUT just look around your gardening center and I bet they have these where you live too. A pre-potted grouping of something tall (thriller), something spilling over the edge or something that will spill over like the lantana you see above, and although the lantana is good for both thriller and filler, for my pot filler I added in some old geraniums that were looking kind of sad at the moment in my garden.
Above you can see another recent score for my backyard...this handy dandy outdoor storage box. It was easy peasy to put together and outdoor accent pillows and small gardening tools.
Another brilliant find this year for me was finding this product called the Upsadaisy that you put inside your pot about halfway down. Not only does it allow you to use less potting soil, it helps with proper drainage and essential oxygen to access plant roots which prevents root rot.
Here's a photo I took for y'all before I added potting soil...
Outdoor Furniture Conversation Sets
I purchased our old outdoor set from Target about a decade ago and while it was still usable, it had seen better days IMHO although Quinn the cat loves it. BTW we do not have a cat. Technically. Although Quinn has adopted us and we actually love it when he stops by for a quick nap. Or the occasional meal. Yes, we buy the most expensive moist cat food in cans because Quinn is a picky eater. The cat that isn't ours but who visits on the regular.
Another reason I had a new set on my mind this year was that the old set only sat four, with two chairs and a tiny loveseat so one our kids always got the short shrift. It was on my list to change that and this year was the year! I went back and forth with what our budget would be but with two guys in college and one soon to go, I knew I didn't want to break the bank on an outdoor set that we would only use during certain weeks in fall and spring so again I set an initial budget of under $1000 for a conversation set with at least room enough to fit five bums in some configuration. Since I don't believe this is our forever home, I knew I'd be willing to spend more once we find it and didn't want to be locked into a more expensive set that might not fit a new space. I gave myself a goal of time to find it in and told myself if I couldn't find the right look, quality, and price in a certain amount of time, then I'd bump up my budget. Thankfully I didn't have to. #thedecordetectivestrikesagain
I'd seen this set all over the internet and I'll be honest, it looked too good to be true. It had the look I wanted, the durability I craved, and the price I wanted. I'm not in love with the cushion color but I'll survive. Plus I just found replacement cushion colorways but since we're towards the end of summer, that's something I'll start stalking come next spring. Back to the set I found though...
It looks like something out of Southern Living truthfully and I love the look but what I love too is that it's made of an all-weather double wall weave "wicker" that has a powder coated finish for rust resistant durability. The cushions are made of 3M Scotchgard treated fabric repels water and stains and they are comfortable y'all. I'm telling you I am impressed. Like I said, I've been looking at this set online for a couple of years and once again, this year it was so popular that it was out of stock every time I looked. But I signed up to be alerted when it came back in stock and within two weeks I got a ping. I immediately grabbed my credit card before the hubs could offer his opinion, ha! I think I told him "Happy Mother's Day to me!" so how could he balk right?
I was able to score the complete set which includes two club chairs, a 3-seater sofa, plus a 1 coffee table with a faux-wood slat tabletop and wicker woven bottom shelf. Bonus treat is that they also include furniture covers y'all for the cushioned pieces. I'm telling you, aside from plants, this is my favorite outdoor backyard purchase EVER.
Now in case you click over, be forewarned that the complete set is out of stock and they're not linking to a restock email BUT you can sign up to be notified when the two piece sets for the sofa and coffee table as well as the two club chairs come back in stock.
I'm still working on an outdoor rug and throw pillows before I grab official photos but as you can see, my garden is blooming beautifully and the birds and bees are perfectly content as am I in my beautiful backyard oasis. Keep scrolling through the beauty to see more of my favorite summer outdoor finds below.
