Green hell

Do you know the issue of the famous Amundsen when looking for his way to the South Pole? So besides the horrible winter and the question of where to go for the comfort stop so that it hurts as little as possible? He would sacrifice all-day food and coffee in addition to see a color other than white. White snow everywhere, and if not snow, then white bears. Incredibly bad. It often looks similar in our gardens. It’s the same, only in green. Green trees, green bushes, green lawn. Add green plastic furniture and the nonsense is complete. Flowers are possible as first aid to solve this green hell. When you get enough of them, you will fight the green darkness, brighten up the exterior and add a special touch to the garden. Therefore you choose lovely flower pots, mugs, or the worst-case scenario – some other, ordinary jug. The problem is that the pots are usually plastic or ceramic, so some of them break and the other can be lost forever with even the smallest hit. I bet that they will fade, turn gray and dull during the first year already, so you will buy a flowerpot after the flowerpot so that the dusty and ugly one will be hidden in a new and beautiful one. At the end of the year, you will have a nice collection of pots. In winter, you will sadly look at the frozen stumps of your pampered annuals, which are currently barely surviving in not very attractive plastic tombs. If you’re lucky, they will be covered by the snow. It should be noted that there has been so much snow in recent years that Amundsen would laugh off this incredible amount. You throw away these beauties in the spring because it rained into them and it immediately froze, so all the flowerpots are good to go to their last part of the journey. Well, pick up the wallet, start the car and visit the nearest garden center with the idea to rebuy some new flowerpots.

And again. And now, let’s try a different approach. Try to imagine planting flowers and trees in something that looks great itself. Something that will light up the garden even before the flowers and fruits appears. In a nutshell, imagine something you put in the garden, on the terrace or on the balcony, and before you put the clay therein, you share with yourself – wow, that’s exactly what I was missing here… These wows are pots in which you can plant anything from pelargoniums to bananas. They can bear everything – the weight of the soil, rain, sun, wind. They do not become brittle, do not break, do not crack, can easily freeze outside, and nothing tears them apart. Only maybe your neighbor would be torn apart, but that’s another story. Cor-ten steel flowerpots have many advantages such as durability and being maintenance-free – this is just their practical side. However, aesthetics is what we made them for. To brighten up the garden and create perfect harmony with your green friends. To revive every corner of the garden, even where the sun does not shine. So you can grow vines on the terrace and bananas by the pool. Over time, their color changes while remaining natural, without looking too fake and artificial. You can choose from the high or low cut version and create the composition that suits your space best. Each of our flower pots is combined with stainless steel so that it will give your garden a touch of luxury and elegance. In summer, it shines with greenery and flowers in it; in winter, it will serve as a Christmas tree stand or as a base for a bird feeder. There are countless uses and it only depends on your creativity what function you choose for it. But one thing is granted – wherever you put them, whatever you plant in them, it will always be a jewel for your garden.

Would you like to have an upscale bar in the garden?

Who wouldn’t want to have it and what would you say to a new garden fireplace? And by that we don’t mean the concrete creation, which is produced in about three variants, one as the other and with a minimum of taste or aesthetics. A concrete fireplace usually has an upper part where a fire is placed, a lower part where you store three wood logs for effect and some chimney. Which is nice, if you don’t expect more from the garden fireplace than that you will sometimes fry some bacon in it and otherwise it will stand in the corner of the garden and you will dry herbs in it all summer. And to be sure, you can let it be covered with ivy so that it does not spoil the impression of the garden. You can also wall up the fireplace yourself if you have the time, money and talent to do so. The disadvantage of brick fireplaces is that wherever you place them, they will stay there forever, and if you decide to change the concept of the garden, the fireplace must remain where it is. Add time to build and money for bricks. In addition, it is still a thing with only one possibility of use. That is, two if we include the drying of herbs. So how does our fireplace differ from the already mentioned offer?

The answer is simple – by everything. The Cor-ten garden fireplace was designed primarily to beautify your garden. We wanted to make something that will please your eye and soothe your soul when you pour whiskey and go out on the terrace in the evening, finally off after the whole day. You can decorate this fireplace as much as you want so that it brings your favorite animal, motif, or just the name of your family clan or family coat of arms to the garden. After lighting a fire, it will warm you but provide special feeling also for your garden, you will enjoy a drink there, but the fire’s radiant flames will create a vivid image that you will be able to enjoy at all times. Although the fireplace was initially designed only to please the soul, we did not give up and improved it to be used with the enclosed grill for grilling or roasting bacon and marshmallows. So you don’t have to worry about hunger, and if you decide to change the concept of the garden, move it wherever to the new location. In addition, the sun and rain are their best friends, so all you have to do is watch how its color gradually changes and thus creates a contrast with the surrounding greenery or shines in the snow. And its maintenance? Pull out the drawer, empty the ash, insert the drawer. This is precisely how it was designed and manufactured. It is a perfect companion for you, who will warm you, feed you, please you, light up the garden, in a nutshell, bring you to the seventh heaven. It’s exactly what you need – nothing more, nothing less.

And what about the garden bar, which will lighten up an atmosphere like on an exotic holiday? It can hold a few bottles of your favorite drink and a few glasses to help a neighbor cross the fence and cheer with you. After all, men also have their days. And having everything you need for a smaller friendly chat is priceless. It’s easier and more comfortable than sneaking into a home bar and tearing up glasses when you’re trying to smuggle them discreetly through the house into the garden, plus in muddy rubber boots. The bar opens with a light touch of the hand and closes just as quietly and smoothly. In addition, it is backlit, so even in the dark, you will see what you are pouring and most importantly – you will not spill because it is a pity for every drop that falls out of the glass. It will also serve reliably with a family barbecue, where you can safely hide alcohol from children and offer its services for an unexpected visit. You don’t have to run anywhere; you have everything you need at hand. And do you know what’s best about it all? In addition to the services of a first-class waiter, it will also guard and store firewood for you, so you will always have it at hand. This garden bar is combined with a wood tray. Light a fire in the fireplace, pour a drink from the bar and enjoy the well-being and ease of being. These fireplace and tray pairs have the same shape and parameters but are produced in two design lines – NINA (square) and MADISON (rectangle), so it’s up to you how you combine them to create a composition that fits precisely into your garden.

Cor-ten – appreciate all the good features of this intelligent „guardian“

Let’s be honest; we buy a garden or terrace as the future place to relax. Few people want to work endlessly in the garden to enjoy a good feeling by doing something beneficial against the ozone hole. Nowadays, when we work 10 hours or more, we want only one thing after arriving home – to get the steam out and relax. Lie down in the garden on a deck chair with a beer in hand and put two more next to the stand. If you are a lady, you make iced coffee and a cake with a magazine is a must-have. We would also love to heat up and warm ourselves by the fireplace in the evening, but then the fireplace needs to be cleaned and dusted off. And also to cut wood and store it somewhere. Also, the wooden table must be sanded and painted every year, the screws tightened, and well protected in case of rain. And we don’t want that. We want peace, well-being and something that will serve us and not us servants to the items. Just where to get something like that and not steal it?

Let’s check the options. Well, there are a few. For example, plastic. It is relatively maintenance-free but also kitschy, non-ecological, not very durable and almost everyone has it in the garden. After a (relatively short) time, it will become brittle and break, in addition, the disposal of an old broken plastic chair will force you to start the car and pay the visit also to the waste disposal place – ergo your time and money, which you spend by buying more and more items. Usually every two years. Artificial rattan is the same, if not worse. And just by the way, would you like the same plastic table with a neighbor on the right, on the left and the one living across the street? Wood is more durable but requires great care, painting against mold, fungi, pests, protection from moisture or sun. No wood lasts long without protective coatings or email coating. Care will be required year after year. It is necessary to add the cost of tarpaulins, some of the screws and a lot of time for assembly, tightening, painting, sanding the items … Even the weather is not exactly a best friend with wood because the sun dries the wood, wet conditions make it soak again. You can’t sit on it after the rain because having a wet bum from wet wood is not exactly something you would prefer. So the wood is excellent, but only if you have spare time and effort to take care of it. What we have there else … Ah, concrete. Well, it’s more durable and less maintenance-required, but it’s still a porous material that absorbs and creates suitable conditions for mosses and lichens. So to concrete, we plan to buy a steel brush and perform a mandatory lifting treatment for your concrete every year. In addition, not everyone is a fan of concrete in the garden, although some lovers of this trend are sure to be found.

Another option is rust. More precisely, steel, which uses rust as protection. You’ll say it’s stupid, every plate will rust once, and who would be all the time up to sand the rust and paint the plate. The answer? Nobody. This rust is precisely what we want. We want an utterly maintenance-free table that will be here whenever needed. The table looks good, with the clearly stated position and tasks, but most importantly – the table we won’t have to worry about. That’s precisely the table we have for you. It is made of special Cor-ten steel, so it protects itself for many years. You don’t have to do anything else; watch the world around while sipping the coffee as its color gradually changes and enjoy that it looks different every time you look at it. And that’s not all. This one table is so multifunctional that you will use it repeatedly and always for a different purpose. We have already introduced the table’s function on the example of beer and iced coffee with cake. A classic piece that must be in every garden. Where else would you put that cake so your dog wouldn’t eat it, right? Next, here we have the function of the fireplace. By removing the glass plate, you will have an open hearth, in which all you have to do is place the logs, strike out the match and you can warm up while watching the sparkles. Di Caprio on the Titanic would not have to be ashamed of such romance, we suppose. But not only is romance a part of a man’s life, you also need to eat. Put the grate in the fireplace and grill the ribs and for your girlfriend or wife some vegetables. If you cover the fireplace after grilling, it will collect the heat and you can stay on a lounger by the garden radiator for a long time. The following day, pull out the drawer into which all the ash has fallen and put it under the roses as fertilizer. That’s all. Your garden table, fireplace, grill and radiator in one are ready for further use. And if you don’t find any use anymore, there is no more original stand for flowers, pots or arrangements, which fine-tunes their color to perfection. And we have so many more such beautiful things for you…

Is rust pure negligence or beauty?

You drive along the highway at high speed and you are enjoying the trip. Suddenly you see rust. A pile of rust. Which stupid installed an anti-noise from such horrible fake material? Last time it was silver, and today, when I go to the village to get my stuff after a month, it is all rusty. Well, it will be a pain again; I’ll pay this expensive repair from my taxes. You complain, tap your forehead and continue in your journey. You probably won’t even think that the rusty plate they put there is the best they could have done. Don’t you believe it? So let’s take a look together what is the story of the rust.

The story of rusty sheet metal began to be written in 1933 in the USA, where this special steel was first patented under Cor-ten (corrosion-resistant products). As the name suggests, this steel stubbornly resists weather conditions. But how does it work? In essence, it is low-alloy steel, which means that it has a very low content of carbon and other impurities. The Corten creates a durable patina thanks to the added copper and phosphorus. When reacting with air, a protective layer of rust is formed, which is not porous, like ordinary rust, but is solid and does not allow adverse weather conditions to other layers of the product, thus preventing the overheating itself.

After demonstrating its amazingly durable properties, Corten quickly gained popularity and practical use wherever rusting iron structures were undesirable and maintenance costs reached astronomical heights. It, therefore, began to be used as the primary building material on industrial buildings, bridges or shipping containers. By the way, did you know that steel with very similar properties was also produced in our country, Czechoslovakia? That’s right, production began in 1968 and this locus was named Atmofix.

To better explain how Corten works, think back to vacation at grandma in the countryside, where you had to paint an iron fence or a gateway as punishment for being caught in the act while doing something terrible. Before that, however, it had to be “cleaned”, then painted with anti-corrosion paint, and only then could you paint the fence with the color you wanted to have on the fence. This work was quite useless; the rust was present even behind your ears and to wait until the first layer finally dries was endless. Two or three years were enough and the fence had to be repainted because the paint gradually peeled off and rust was everywhere again. It went on like this until the grandparents said they would instead buy a concrete fence and it could be the end of the story.

If they had a fence from Corten, they could also skip the concrete. On the other hand, Corten has the advantage that the protective layer of rust is constantly renewed and thus protects the product over the years. Corten products are thus virtually maintenance-free in our geographical conditions and considered to be almost eternal. In addition, this patina changes its color over time and thus becomes an attractive addition to the garden.

The only disadvantage of this steel is that it also needs dryness to stabilize the protective layer so that the rust formed can dry and stabilize. Therefore, it is not suitable for use in coastal countries or subtropical zones where the air humidity is too high. Rust formation does not stop and stabilize, but the corrosion process continues further until eventually Corten completely goes too rusted.

An example of such an unfortunate use of Corten is (actually was) the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, which lasted only less than 25 years than expected and became the subject of a controlled demolition due to the resulting state of emergency. However, there is no such threat in our climate zone, which is why Corten steel is an ideal material for our gardens and terraces. Unless your neighbor owns a rainforest or lives in wetlands, in this case, we recommend stainless steel garden furniture.

Put it in a nutshell and underlined, Cor-ten is:

• completely maintenance-free
• saves money and valuable time
• each piece is original with its color and drawing
• its products are multifunctional, durable and practically indestructible

So what do you think? Would you give a chance to have rust in your garden as well?