Vintage View: Iron garden furniture

VINTAGE cast iron garden furniture remains a beloved staple in a traditional garden.

If you like the romantic, billowing Rococo form, benches, seat and table groups offer sculptural focus points against formal borders or in a shaggy, more casual cottage garden.

As seating, cast iron has hefty, chill, knee-bruising challenges that can make pulling out a chair in a seating group an invitation to a slipped disc. Cushioned for impact or seated in wood, it will last several lifetimes if well maintained.