Name: Sue
Location: Vancouver, BC
Type of space: Garden
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: We share a home with my 90 year old Father-in-Law. We live in the basement and so when Summer comes I am DYING to get outside from the dark space.

We have a huge garden...and have many "rooms in it. At the entrance to the back yard is a small patio where we BBQ followed by a lush and green planted area with a water pump feature I carried back from Ireland in my suitcase :-). We have an Asian style garden on the far side with a Thai Spirit House, then comes the large patio with in-ground fish pond, fire pit, seating and dining and bar. Through the arch you come into our Vegetable Garden...followed by another patio where we are building a fire pit from roasting large pieces of meat etc. All of these are connected with a cobble stone path we laid ourselves. More

Name: Victoria
Location: Somerville, MA
Type of space: Roof deck
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: We live in Somerville, MA, and our condo building has a lovely roof deck space that receives ample sun. Having grown up in a house with a huge herb, vegetable, and fruit producing backyard, I knew I wanted to utilize this outdoor space for growing at least a little something. Although the summer has been fairly cool so far in the Boston area, our makeshift vegetable and herb patch has been doing well so far! More

Name:
Location:
Type of space:
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: We bought the house 13 months ago, and I could not wait to start gardening. The yard had good bones, including great fruit trees, but had been completely neglected for the last couple of years. It is definitely a work in progress, as we're having a really hard time maintaining any semblance of a lawn. I really wanted to grow edibles as well so we turned the side yard into what I jokingly refer to as the "farm". I have also expanded the edibles into the backyard in wine barrels and even planted pumpkins in the front. I love being able to grow things that I can't buy, especially squash blossoms and poha berries. More

Name: Bruce
Location: Wicker Park, Chicago
Type of space: Garage rooftop vegetable garden
Last week, we profiled Heidi and Art's rooftop garden, and today, we're touring the garden of their neighbor and fellow Green Roof Grower, Bruce.
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Name: Cecilia
Location: Anaheim, CA
Type of space: Backyard
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoyed it: It's Father's Day, and officially the first day of summer, so we had dined al fresco in the backyard to celebrate both.

We grilled some Korean barbecue, had seafood cajun style - boiled in a bag - king crab legs, a pasta salad made with vegetables from my brother's garden, sea snails in coconut cream sauce, rice, and a lovely tiramisu to end the meal. More

Are you eating, cooking, or growing food outdoors this summer?Whichever it is, we want to see it! Show us your outdoor meals! If you are doing anything at all with food outside this summer, we want to be inspired, and we'll send a small thank you gift to all our readers who participate.

Our June event, My Great Outdoors, is all about beautiful, inspiring and intelligent solutions you've done yourself, so we're putting the call out to our best and important resource: you, our readers! For The Kitchn's readers specifically, we're looking for food outside! Read on for some ideas... More

Name: Mark
Location: Portland, Oregon
Type of space: Balcony
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: The winter weather in Portland forces us indoors for a good chunk of the year, so when the summer sun pops its face out of the grey clouds, we Portlanders head outdoors. Any where you walk in the city during the summer, you’ll see Portlanders on their balconies, front stoops, and porches, eating, drinking, laughing, sharing each other’s company. My girlfriend Lydia and I try eat on our balcony as much as possible, often hosting our friends.

We are both pizza lovers and have started making pizzas on the grill. Because our balcony is so small, we use a small Weber grill… which actually works better than a big grill for making pizzas because it gets so hot. More

Name: Margaret
Location: Chicago, IL
Type of space: Wooden balcony
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: I fell in love with this apartment because it has two balconies, a cooler cement one on the north side, and a sunny wooden one on the south side. The view from the south deck is of a lovely backyard next door, and then a park beyond that. Way in the distance is the Sears Tower and the Trump Tower, which remind me what city I live in! It's been cool and rainy so far this summer, but on nice days I sit outside, and every day I check on the plants. Kitchen gardening has always been important to me, and we are growing as much as we can in containers: two types of basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, dill, cilantro, chives, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumber. More

Name: Heidi and Art
Location: Wicker Park, Chicago
Type of space: Backyard and rooftop
Some 20 years ago, Heidi and Art pulled their Airstream trailer right into their new home: a former disco in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Today, the Airstream is still there, but they've transformed the building into a truly unique living and work space. Heidi was kind enough to give us a tour of their backyard hideaway and impressive DIY rooftop vegetable garden – complete with homemade Earthbox-type containers, greenhouse and beehive. More

Name: Jennifer
Location: Long Beach, California
Type of space: Apartment balcony
Tell us about your outdoor project and how you enjoy it: Apartment dwelling often limits a person to creating a garden. This happens to be my case. I try to savor and use wisely what I DO have and at the moment this is my balcony. Cooking and gardening are two of my favorite things so what should every cook have? An edible garden of course! This is my outdoor project. Balcony edible container garden. More