Cane Line is a Danish company that was founded in 1986 and has grown steadily up to the present where they are now among the leading European suppliers of maintenance-free garden furniture. The other cool thing is that they’re available in some sixty countries on six continents, including ours.

Extremis is a Belgium company with the damnedest business philosophy I have ever seen. They build products to bring people together. It’s not just outdoor furniture with these people, and most certainly, it is not just a job. It’s an adventure and a vocation, and a passion and a calling and a fever.

I recently came across the very type of company I most wish I had commissioned for my own yard, although their business is actually on the other side of the continent. Ann Johnson Design is in Georgia, and is surely one of the reasons that state is so achingly beautiful in the early spring.

These people have really done their homework. This lineup of products is a combination of conventional concepts and hey-wouldn’t-it-be-nice-if-someone-thought-of-a-way-to-do-such-and-such. They have a number of barbecuing products that use gas, but my favorite has always been charcoal, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to find anything in that line these days, and especially so, if the barbecue itself has any kind of style and grace about it. Well, sir!