Categories
- Community Gardening (8)
- Competitions (22)
- Compost, Soil, Mulch & Fertilisers (19)
- Container Gardening (14)
- Garden Tools (33)
- Gardening (181)
- Gardening Books & Gifts (15)
- Gardening Tips & Ideas (31)
- Gardens (10)
- Home Garden (44)
- Landscaping (64)
- Organic Gardening (24)
- Pests & Plant Diseases (16)
- Plants (26)
- Annuals, Shrubs & Perennials (13)
- Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes & Tubers (12)
- Cactus & Succulents (12)
- Climbers & Creepers (2)
- Ferns & Shade Lovers (4)
- Flowers (41)
- Fruit & Berries (15)
- Fungi, Mushrooms & Toadstools (4)
- Grasses & Groundcovers (3)
- Hedges & Screening Plants (3)
- Herbs & Vegetables (23)
- Indoor & Tropical Plants (8)
- Native Plants & Wildflowers (15)
- Roses (1)
- Trees & Conifers (31)
- Weeds (8)
Plan to have outdoor garden lighting
If you're frugal with electricity costs in your home - then splashing out with outdoor garden lighting may not be your cup ot tea (herbal or otherwise).
I arrived home yesterday afternoon to a barrage of hardware and gardening catalogues (is that $pring I $mell in the air?). One such propaganda of discontent pamphlet had a whole section on garden lighting from the inexpensive (I'll mention this later) to the very expensive which would need to be installed by a qualified electrician.
In the 'good old days' the only lighting you would find outdoors was the coloured bulb strip that would circle the patio (or Hills hoist - if you wanted to be fancy) and a couple of spotlights which illuminated the whole garden. Today, it's a far more sophisticated world and in the words of Homesite "The days are gone when you have a floodlight on the four corners of a house to light the yard as brightly as possible."
Before I move on to give some tips and ideas for how you could add some outdoor lighting to your garden, let me just make one statement. I hate (is that too strong) those tacky solar lights that everyone seems to be sticking in their garden. They're the lucky bamboo's of the lighting world. My humble apologies to those who have these but I just ask WHY??? Yuk!! They don't look good people!
Ok. Enough of my rant let's look at some possible ideas for our gardens...
Before you start you may need to ask yourself "What are my gardening needs and what am I trying to achieve with bringing lighting into my garden?"
As most decent garden lighting requires some sort of electrical cabling it would be wise to keep these away from areas that you will be digging a lot. For example, areas where you are likely to maintain annuals or bulbs etc.
When it comes to choosing the lighting that you want in your garden, think about what you are trying to achieve. Do you want the tree in the middle to stand out? Do you want some spindly plant silhouetted in the background? Do you want it lit from above, below, behind or in front?
- Lighting for Water Features - there are so many options to have lighting in your ponds, waterfeatures, waterfalls etc and many are easy to install and only run on 12 volts.
- Uplighting - this is achieved by placing lighting at the base of a plant, tree or architectural feature and can be very artistic.
- Shadow Lighting placing lights at angles in front of a feature or plant to allow a shadow to be cast upon a wall can be very dramatic.
- Silhouetted Lighting - this is the opposite of shadow lighting which is achieved from behind a plant or landscape feature to silhouette the item as you look toward it.
- Illuminated Lighting - there is still a need for illumination in the garden so that people can find paths, navigate steps and stairs and also walk freely without falling victim to a hazardous toy left by your 3 year old.
This article has been republished from my previous blog.
These articles may also be helpful...
Who's responsible for this...?
Get fresh posts in your Inbox
Recent Posts
My Other Blogs
Gardening Blogs
Australia & NZ
- A Grower's Delight [ACT, AUS]
- Balcony Flowers [WA, AUS]
- Frog Garden [QLD, AUS]
- Greenfoot [AUS]
- Outdoor Living Authority [Tas, AUS]
Canada
UK
USA
- A Study in Contrasts [OH, US]
- Angela's Garden Blog [CA, US]
- Cold Climate Gardening [US]
- Color's of the Garden [NY, US]
- Garden Djinn [MI, US]
- Gotta Garden [VA, US]
- In The Garden Online [MI, US]
- Katina's Little Gardeners [OH, USA]
- May Dreams Gardens [IN, US]
- North Country Maturing Gardener [NH, USA]
- The Garden Blog [SC, US]
- The Blogging Nurseryman [CA, US]
- The Transplantable Rose [TX, US]
- This Garden Is Illegal [OH, USA]
- Veggie Gardening Tips [PY, USA]
- Garden Rant [US]
- Gardening Launching Pad [Garden Blog Directory]
Movable Type 4.0
Comments
I don't know about the solar lights available in Australia, but solar lights here have come a long way in the past few years. If you hate the round, one- or 2-tiered solar lights made mostly out of cheap black plastic... I agree. But some of the newer styles are very nice.
I have some squared-off prairie style ones (kind of like the ones in your picture, but taller and hanging from short shepherd's hooks) that help me mark the driveway, a path deviation on my way back to the compost bin, the front sidewalk, etc. The ones in the front yard are powder-coated in a tan colored matte enamel, and the ones in the back yard have the same coating in black.
I love them primarily because I don't have to use any electric to run them and I don't have to remember to turn them on--or off. Best of all, when I change things up in the garden (as I frequently do) I don't have to rewire anything to change up my garden lights!
Now if only the wall-mounted ones and the uplighting ones would get just a little better in the looks department... I'm still waiting for that improvement to happen before I buy any of those types...
Posted by: blackswamp_girl (Kim) | July 21, 2006 2:53 AM
Well I'll have to agree with Stuart on this one. I think solar lighting is the 'vinal fence' of the lighting world. Here are my reasons. 1)Solar lighting is rarely soft lighting. It often looks like ten tiny refrigerator lights across the yard. 2) It's not always bright enough to illuminate a walkway.
Sooooo, while I think solar lights are a great idea, I'll wait a bit longer for them to address these problems. And I'll stick with low-voltage for now.
Posted by: Bob | March 26, 2007 11:17 AM