Garden lighting.

I would like to put some low voltage lighting into the back garden. Something along the lines of the "Select A Light" system where I can get 6 spike spots with all the necessary cable and transformer etc for £55 but the lights give a white light and I would like a green glow. What does evereyone else use?

 

Hi Raymond-s. i have about 26 lights in the back garden ALL are Solar lighting. at night it's very nice. there are various colours. i have 2 spot lights at the bottom of the garden fixed onto the 6ft fence,these 2 spots change colour continuously. i have others that change colours and some that are a fixed colour. i have 2 imitation old fashioned street lights about 6 ft tall they are also solar.
when i first came into the house i installed electric lights around the garden i never use them now.
i was a bit sceptical with solar lights but now i would not go back to the electric lights.
i may have been lucky with the quality of lights i purchased, but all the lights ,in summer come on
when it starts getting dark and they are on all night till first light. there are some low quality solar lights on the market ,wont mention any names of shops but you can get 2 for a pound. all the best
in your endeavour . music.

 

I've two sets of low voltage fairy lights, one on a pergola the other under the eves of the tea-house. I've also got two recycled pool lights, one in each of my Japanese lanterns. The rest of the lights are mains voltage. One in the tea-house to illuminate the opaque windows. It also has its own light. Two spots over the pool and four "porch" type lanterns, one each on the tea-house and shed and two on the side of the garage.

They are all controlled by three swiches behind the curtains on the lounge wall next to the French windows. A four-core armoured cable (one live three common) runs under the patio to three double sockets in the garage, to which all the lights are plugged in. The power coming from the garage supply. This set up allows me a lot of options as what to have on (or off) at any time. To tell the truth I don't have them on that often, unless we're in the garden of an evening.
A fourth switch connected to the house circuit is for the porch light on the back wall of the house.
I've also two PIR spotlights under the house eaves which illuminate the back and side of the house, when I set them at night.

We've two PIR lamps at the front, one spot, one porch, that come on if anyone gets their nose over our curtilage at night.

 

oh thats pretty doghouse riley

i have spots shining onto pond

then three through the back of a flower bed on a long line

solar lamps that i like to keep moving around

and my piece de resistance - a big flowerpot ( 14 inches high and 9inches diameter) in which i have a colour change solar lamp on top of which i have a very very thick piece of unbreakable glass which serves as a table - magical

i have lined the pot with foil to reflect the light better

then i have tealights in pretty holders

cheap and cheerful

loopy

 

About 6 years ago I bought some really cheap 'soft glow' solar lights - the instructions say they shouldn't be left out during the winter, but I put them in the ground and there they've stayed ever since (they look rather nice with a little mound of softly lit snow on them!).

A recent refurbishment of the garden meant I wanted some extra lights, but the soft glow ones seem out of fashion, thus I bought (again some very cheap) brighter ones, and to make them match my existing lights, used some stuff called 'Liquid Rainbow', which you can buy in art or hobby shops, (often used to paint glass) painted it onto the clear, self adhesive film you can buy and stuck that to the plastic shades.

 

That sounds interesting. Not keen on solar lighting but perhaps that is because I have had bad ones in the past so might try again. Your idea would allow me to change the colour to whatever I wanted to suit the location of the light. Thanks.

 

I've got some lovely solar lights in my garden and they've always worked fine, so would definitely recommend them.

In fact, I even got my mum some cute solar frog lights for mother's day and she's very enthusiastic about them. I got them from this site:

http://www.primrose-london.co.uk/garden-lighting-c-28.html

I daresay frog lights aren't exactly what you want, but they have a range of lighting that is not frogs so you might find something you like there!

 

My main objection to solar lights is that I want to be able to sit in the conservatory in the winter as well as the summer and I don't think there will be sufficient charge in the lights during the winter.

 

There are solar lights and solar lights. Cheaper end ones will (a) only last a number of charge and discharge cycles (meaning days) and have limited charge capability (meaning they aren't lit for as long. A friend used coloured clear plastic (like the type that is put infront of spotlights at the theatre) over his solar lights bulbs and that worked well.

It does depend on the style of the lights though as to how practically easy or awkward this is.

 

we have all solar lighting too, it seems to do a good job and looks pretty at night. We are however going to get a net of lights for our decking to put on some trellis, i dont think you can get these solar so they would be powered x

 

this is just beautiful!!!!! our decking area i want with a 'roof' on like this im going to keep this and show my husband when he gets home!!! Totally just gorgeous!!! xxx

 

Thanks for that.


Here's a "daytime" tour.

This is from last last summer.


[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SVpwjnRxKA"]YouTube- P1020493[/nomedia]


Most of what you see has been there over twenty years, we do ring the changes from time to time, but it's mostly additions and replacements and "moving stuff about." The almond tree in the circular bed in the lawn replaced a couple of years ago, three huge camellias in a large bed which at 8ft tall were obscuring much of the bottom end of the garden. We saved the stump of one which is now doing very nicely in the border. I returfed that area of the lawn and built the brick circle.

Our garden is very secure, there's this door in the 8ft high fence between the side of the house and the edge of the garage.






We last week bought these "pot movers" so the big patio pots can be pulled back if we want to sit on the patio.





I like York stone as it looks nice even when wet, but does need a "jetwash" every year.

I've also laid these brick pavers last week along the side of the lawn so I can do away with "edging" after mowing.



I've done the same with our small front garden. You can't see the pavers, as they are flush with the lawn, but they're there!
That acer tree was in the back garden, but we moved it about fifteen years ago. Each year I prune it with a long pruner to keep it a nice "lollipop shape" the leaves start off pink and then go a nice shade of green.





The azaleas will look like this when they come out.



Twenty-five years ago It was one little plant in a tiny pot reduced to 50p on Altrincham market as it had a broken stem. My wife mended it with Sellotape and I've layered it over the years.


Oh! and I've bought another jukebox!

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoiSz0KNPi8"]YouTube- Hall & Oates The Stewardess Song.MOV[/nomedia]