RP and I are on the hunt for the perfect chaise lounges for our new roof garden.

We’ve never shopped for serious outdoor furniture before and it really is overwhelming: Metal or wood? Solid or sling back? Arms or no arms? Heck, would you like stripes with that? Not too expensive, not too ticky-tacky, nothing too Golden Girls or Titanic looking. We need something that won’t blow off the roof, and Sunbrella fabric would be a plus.  We’re shopping for two chaises that are stackable and fit in with our existing brown outdoor dining table and chairs. We’d like something that’s sturdy, not too hard to assemble, and can be delivered all the up to the 5th floor roof for a fair delivery charge. Since we live in NYC, we probably won’t even be able to see what we pick before it is delivered — most stores don’t stock much of their outdoor items here.

We’re looked high (Restoration Hardware, Room & Board), low (Target.com - much larger online selection than we expected, Home Depot), and in between (Macy’s, Crate and Barrel, Amazon).

Outdoor furniture shopping in January? A saleswoman laughed at RP when he called her this morning to ask about cushion colors and delivery time, but we’re discovering this is a good time to shop: many stores have sales right now, you can still snap up some discontinued items from last summer, and the new items are starting to debut. The best-priced, best-looking stuff sells out fast, we’ve learned.

Can anyone help us with our patio peoples’ problem?

This morning, these two are on the top of our list: The Madison patio chair from Macy’s, on sale for $399. The metal will coordinate with our other furniture and we think we like the arms. It could be too light for the wind that can gust across the roof, and we’re hoping we’re not limited to only green cushions. My spendy favorite is the Valencia Chase from Crate & Barrel, $899 (picture at the post of the post). The rest of our outdoor furniture is from Crate & Barrel and it has been even more durable than we expected. I also like the modern, luxe look of the Valencia and the plain stone color. But RP is worried about the gas pedal that sets how far back the chair can go. Could we break it after too many margaritas? Plus $899 feels so expensive, but we’re planning to spend every sunny minute we have up there from spring to fall.

Check out these kinda naughty terrariums on sale at Fab.com today. If you’re missing gardening as much as I am (remind me of this when I’m up at 6 a.m. to water in July!), these tongue-in-cheek terrariums from Twig might be just the gardening treat to get us by until we can get outside again.

I’m digging these zap of colors from these planters at HomeGoods in Chicago. Kinda fluorescent Tuscan or something?

This garden looks simple, spare, and so relaxing. See how they planted driftwood with succulents? I found this garden on west elms’ new blog . . . for lots more photos head to the homeowner’s blog.

This summer, we’ve been loving the wireless Jawbone Jambox on the roof. We send music to it wirelessly via Bluetooth from out iPhone.

I happened to see this display of white W Hotel looking outdoor speakers and these faux rock speakers of questionable taste this morning at Best Buy. It looks like this can be wirelessly connected to the Sonos system we’re trying to set up downstairs. Sonos is cool for synching the music through the whole place – from living room and kitchen up to the roof all controlled from an iPhone or iPad app.

I’m going to keep researching an outdoor sound system. Any advice?

My favorite song to listen to up there? Up on the Roof by Carole King, of course. Buena Vista Social Club also feels good up there.

We landed back home last night after a great vacation in Rome, Barcelona and Nice. We snapped some photos from gardens around the Mediterranean that I’ll start sharing soon.

But, as soon as I saw Not Neutral’s tall orange lantern on sale for 40% off at Fab.com (you have to register to shop, unfortunately), I wanted to ask for help with two roof garden challenges I want to focus on next spring: scale and color. I’ve loved these lanterns since I first saw them on Apartment Therapy, but I don’t want to buy something this big in such a bold unless I’m totally sure we’ll use it. (Of course, the black and white are not on sale!)

In our first three years of roof gardening, we’ve planted what we love, with an eye towards sturdy plants that survive dry, windy conditions. Last year we invested in some taller shrubs which improved the scale and made our garden feel more relaxing, a bit less windswept. We going for the cacophonous British garden look, but I think we can try to plan it out just a bit more.

Do you have any tall, bring accessories in your garden or do you let the plants do most of the talking?

Head over to New York Magazine to tour a modern Williamsburg, Brooklyn backyard garden.

RP and I felt like sentimental saps talking to the awesome if acidic Awl about the community-building power of Brooklyn gardens, but we love the post.  Thanks to The Awl for visiting some tiny Brooklyn gardens, including ours! Check out the whole post here.

(Photo: The Awl)

How did we go two and a half summers with no music up on the roof? Last night we finally started playing around with the Jawbone Jambox that I gave RP for Christmas.

We listened to some Buena Vista Social Club, some Ibiza chillout music as the sun set and of course, we totally listened Carol King’s 1962 “Up On The Roof” three or four times:

When this old world starts getting me down,
And people are just too much for me to face—
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space …

I think lots of people talk about Up on the Roof or allude to it, but have never truly listened to it . . .I never did. Check it out! Anyway, we tucked the Jambox into our umbrella, keeping it away from dinner and the free-flowing rose. RP has a plan for using a stocking(!!!) to tie it into place. We were worried a gust of wind could smash it back to the table.

The Jambox is easy to set, runs with no cords, and comes with a great case. We took turns sending music from our iPhones to the Jambox via Bluetooth.

Do you listen to music in your garden? While I really love the relative quiet of our roof space (and RP has just used headphones when he felt like listening to music) it did make for a special, party atmosphere.

Head over to Remodelista for a treasure chest of roof garden photos, including this photo from Brooklyn’s Brook Landscape.