But now it's time to get honest...you really want one, don't you? Or, should that have been - don't you!

My wife wants one. My kids want one. Me - I just want more plants. Is that too much for a gardener to request? Yet the lone voice in the wilderness still holds the cheque book...so we'll be getting plants.

However, if I did get a pizza oven for our backyard there would be certain features that I would be looking for. Plus, I'd have to consider the price and whether it would be better to build a pizza oven or buy one from the local big-box. And in the end, is it more important to get one for the sake of the "pizza" or one that works best with your outdoor area?

Best Tasting Pizza?

Any pizza connoisseur will tell you that wood-fired cooking produces the best flavour. Yet, the inconvenience of starting a wood fire, waiting until it gets to the right temperature and then maintaining it may quickly take the shine of your new novelty appliance. Plus, there's always the danger if you have little ones of storing matches away from their curious hands.

Gas is the only other option, unless you are prepared to hard-wire an electric oven. While a gas-fired oven may be the ultimate in convenience it pails significantly in the overall taste - and that's why you would have a pizza oven anyway, isn't it?

Will a Pizza Oven fit your garden's style?

Uppermost in a gardener's mind is, "Will this new appliance work with my garden style?" And for most, it will. However, if your style resembles a tropical Bali garden then it will most likely look a little out of place. And it all depends on the construction materials that are used. Brick, clay or mud, stainless steel or wrought iron, it makes sense that the material used should complement your garden style rather than ensure it sticking out like a sore thumb.

It is also worth considering how the oven's placement will affect the rest of the garden. Will the radiated heat be too much for your expensive spring bulb collection. Or, are there tree branches within close proximity that could easily catch alight and decimate your garden with the first pizza?

Should you buy a Pizza Oven or build one?

Another option is to have someone build it for you and if cash is no problem then this may be the best option. While on the surface it may seem that building your own pizza oven may be the most frugal way forward it needs to be considered the amount of time this will take to construct, and whether you're willing to pass up gardening time to concentrate on a landscape feature that may or may not get a lot of use.

My preference would be to build one because I enjoy doing this sort of stuff but then the water feature I started two years ago still isn't finished and other projects around the yard have always taken longer than expected. But, if you want something that is unique and oozes personality, trying to source it may take just as much of your time.

An outdoor pizza oven may eventually make it into our backyard, but the kids have realized that holding their breath for it may cause them to run out of air.