October 20, 2015
Enjoying the outdoors when the weather is cooperative is a marvelous way to maximize the use of the garden. While most people spend warm summer evenings in their garden, you can extend the time spent outdoors by adding appropriate lighting.
Garden lights can be decorative in much the same manner as indoor lights and can add to the ambience and mood. And your quality of life!
Outdoor Candle Lanterns
You can use scented or decorative garden candles to make your garden attractive in the nights. Candles scented with citronella oil will keep insects at bay while adding an enticing perfume to the garden. As the outdoors can be breezy, you need to place the candles in special glass holders that can keep out the breeze. Colored glass lanterns that can be hung from hooks or branches can convert your garden into a fairyland at night. The dim light of the candles can provide a soothing background for family get-togethers or an evening with friends. Choose from frosted glass, colored, or other lanterns such as miner’s lantern depending on the overall effect you aim to create. Rope lanterns as well as lanterns made of steel or metal are also a fantastic way to enhance the ambience of the garden for a night time party and they look great even during the day.
Candles provide an ideal combination of safety and beauty in the garden. The flickering flames add an element of drama and motion to the garden, making it come alive. The play of light and shadows can enhance the beauty of a garden. Candle flames are also easy to contain, making them a safe option, especially if your garden will be used by children as well, even in the night.
Battery-Operated Lights
Battery operated lights can be placed in strategic places in the garden, especially in those areas where it is difficult to get wiring for electricity operated lights. This is so if you have a large garden and special arbors or areas that need to be lighted only occasionally. Instead of investing in expensive wiring, you can stock up on a few battery operated lights and enjoy the outdoors even at night.Outdoor String Lights
While candles, especially aromatic candles, can create a special atmosphere in the garden, you need to also add electric lights to the open areas. These will provide better light for activities such as reading, dining, or even cooking.
Outdoor Light Fixtures
Just as you have different lights for different purposes at home, you need to have different intensity lights for various activities in the garden. The choice of lights depends on the purposes you have planned for your garden. If you will be cooking outdoors, you need bright task lighting over your barbecue, grill, or outdoor kitchen counter and stove. Similarly, you might want to install hanging lights over the tables set around the cooking area, to provide islands of light for the diners. Pathways will need to be lighted with sufficient light that is not too bright to ensure that people can navigate the garden safely while still keeping the garden cool and pleasant.Landscape Lighting
Apart from functional lights, the garden should also have decorative lights that can add to the beauty of the plants and water features at night.
These can be colored lights that can highlight certain trees, plants, and shrubs, as well as the water features and other parts of the garden.
A fountain that includes colored lights will make an interesting attraction in a garden and can be switched on when entertaining. Similarly, if you have a waterfall or pool, these too can be decorated with colored lights.
If your garden includes a swimming pool, you will be able to host pool side parties or relax by the pool with your family even at night if you get lights installed in the pool and by the pool side. Installing lights in the pool and close to it is a specialized job that should be undertaken by an electrician who has the certification to do so and can follow local codes.
