Do you light your garden at night?

I love the garden at night and this its sometime the most magical time of the day, especially when its warm outside and TV is rubbish inside.
Ebay LED lights and 12v lighting on a timer help bring my garden to life at night. Not too bright, but just enough not to lose the space into a black hole.

 

I'm not very keen on lights in the garden but my plan for the next couple of years is to grow a lot of plants with lilac, white, soft pink flowers in Summer/early Autumn and place them roughly equidistantly around the garden, providing a different form of 'illumination' at dusk/evening.

Nick

 

Only the terrasse and drive are lit. Depending on the phases of the moon, there's no need for lighting It's full moon on Wednesday

 

We do but they change frequently. We are just putting Solar ones up that you can have on soft/bright/PIR. This path is always lit from the cars/lower garden to the house.

 

I've got flood lights but I'm presuming that is not what you mean.

I bought a couple of those cheap solar powered ones that you stick in the ground.
But they don't last long because we don't get enough sun to charge them up.

 

Hi Pete, I also have a flood light for when i need lots of light. They do LED ones now so not so much power needed. But no you are right, i meant the softer LED or gentle up lighter ones. I also like the bright white flowers idea as on a clear moon/starlit night this is a real treat

 

I shall watch this thread because I would like to try a few uplights in certain areas, to some of my plants.
I think it could look good but needs doing well.

 

"I think it could look good but needs doing well." - LOL - my missus keeps a check on me as otherwise I'd be too multi coloured and garish. Much of our stuff is 'warm white' with splashes of changing colour and is intended to give a magical fairy and elves feeling of happy mystery. Ebay do these 7LED units for about £15 that change colours ( a little fast for my liking) but it comes in a form that has a wire between the solar cell and the LED head - so you can keep the charger in the sun but still light down the bottom of trees etc.

 

Ah found it this type of thing seem to work well for colour changing uplights on small trees - T-SUN 7LED 7 Color Solar Spot Light Garden Lamp Outdoor Floodlight Security Lamp | eBay its also on amazon.

 

I only have a few direction LED's in my greenhouses and they are incorporated into server fans and the light follows the spinning blades rather than blaring outward. All run from batteries which are supplied by solar panels. They are coloured. Some green, some blue, some red. Looks pretty and gently moves the air.

If I want real night light, I just wait for the hillbillies next to me to put on their back light. I believe they must have stolen it from a red rec as it lights up their back, most the way across mine and the fellow on the other side of them and the backs of the houses backing up to our three.
Luckily, they've not been lighting up the neighbourhood quite as much as they used to.

I do have a "floodlight" right outside the back door which I rarely use and it is pointed down toward the deck. It's just for utility. Not for looks.

I have toyed with the idea of a few of those flower shaped LED's but some of them border on "cheesy" and I already have pink flamingos out there...

 

Come on now shiney, you are always talking about your forays in the garden in the wee hours!

 

I started lighting my old garden using old christmas string lights. In the new garden I started using the 'specially made' solar string lights in the tubing ... waste of money as they only lasted one season and the last set only four weeks.
I also tried the solar globe lights, 6 to start with, four failed the first year one in the second year and one is still working 6 years later.
Now using the high power rock lights and stake lights to illuminate the pond and statues, also to light up shrubs as they come into flower. These work well with white and yellow flowers and are easy to move. The do not do well in shade but positioned carefully can be astounding.

 

We have a copper filigree globe lantern that has a solar gain panel at the top. What is fascinating is if the sun doesn't shine all day (hence no night light) but the sky clears to give moon light, it will shine more brilliantly for longer.