Best Garden Design and Arrangement Tips for Regular Al Fresco Dining

While it’s probably true that most al fresco dining only really practically occurs during the warmer months of the year if you design and arrange it properly you can enjoy dining outdoors all through the year. Okay – almost throughout the entire year, because you’d probably be pushing it if we were having some extremely cold weather, like when it’s snowing… Despite the drawbacks, here we give you a compelling case for redesigning the garden with high-quality teak furniture and other added extras.

Covered decking or veranda

Depending on how deep or how long your covered decking extends, you could very well bring on that snowy, cold weather. Otherwise covered decking or a veranda makes for a definite requirement if you want to enjoy al fresco dining no matter what the weather is, and if you do this a lot, perhaps it’s time to think about getting some helpful hints from RTA Outdoor Living to see what your options are. Don’t let anybody who hasn’t experienced it tell you that covered outdoor dining defeats the purpose of al fresco dining, since there’s an overhead structure.

It’s different to dining inside…

An outdoor, rock fireplace

Gravel rock fireplaces don’t only look awesome, but also serve the function of offering some warmth during those colder days that might have you still want to dine outside. Those open gravel rock kinds are the most aesthetically appealing, but they have a use in summer too, which is to keep those pesky insects away.

Not having to slap yourself silly can make a big difference to any outdoor dining experience.

Lighting

If you want to be eating al fresco, the likelihood is you’ll be eating as it’s getting dark. To avoid suddenly finding that the sun has gone down and you can’t see where your food is, you’re going to need some well-chosen and well-placed landscape lighting. This could be anything from wall lanterns to patio lighting, but you’ll need to have enough light to be able to see what you’re doing.

Grill

Why stop at outdoor dining if you can have the entire experience of preparing the food and serving outdoors? On the days that you’d have some guests over, being able to prepare all the food in their presence hedges against having to disappear indoors now and then and thereby spending some time away from your guests.

A good quality grill will more than account for this, with the best of them boasting the kind of functionality that can have you preparing any kind of dish, covering the full range of cooking styles.

The teak furniture

Your outdoor teak furniture is perhaps the most important piece of the alfresco dining puzzle because at the end of the day it’s about the act of sitting down and eating. This is why it has to be of high quality, but the type of good quality you’re looking for doesn’t necessarily have to come at a high cost.

For the most natural look, you’d naturally look towards teak furniture, with plenty of options to choose from. For practicality considerations, the likes of foldable teak garden tables would make the most sense, but if you’re going to make al fresco dining a regular thing, you might be looking towards more heavier-duty options, like complete teak garden table and chair sets.

Flora

As far as the plants forming part of your garden goes, these would then naturally form around the seating arrangements made provision for on account of the main activity of al fresco dining. This way, whether you cultivate a lawn, build a wooden or tiled deck, or maybe grow some cascading wall plants, it will always make for a beautiful alfresco dining setting that complements the outdoor dining.

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Kelly Tate

Kelly is a full-time supermum, caring for two kids and a hardworking husband. A cook, a cleaner, a carer and all round hard worker, striving for the perfect family life (with a few bumps along the way!) Eternally honest and sometimes brutally forward, no topics are off limits with Kelly.