Outdoor

The wind does not read the spec sheet. A shade sail rated for 120 km/h will still tear a swivel out of a cheap bracket when the gusts come at an angle and the fabric starts to snap.

The small-engine aisle at a hardware store lays the question out in plastic and steel. On one side, a row of battery mowers in green and orange housings, quiet as furniture.

The first mistake most people make with a pressure washer and a wood deck is believing the machine is the problem. It is not.

The outdoor fridge has become the great status symbol of the backyard renovation boom, but most of the ones installed in the last five years are already failing at their only real job.

Every September, the same scene plays out on suburban decks and in backyard bars: a string of warm LED bulbs sags between two flimsy aluminum poles, the whole assembly leaning at an angle that suggest

The backyard camping stove has become the most liberating piece of cooking equipment most people own and never use.

October is when the deck furniture covers come off for the last time, and the question of where to put them becomes suddenly urgent.

Propane patio heaters occupy a strange place in the American backyard: ubiquitous enough to be standard equipment at restaurants and home improvement stores, yet dangerous enough that every season bri