The brands of garden lights are almost as numerous and the styles, colors and designs. However, there are several moderately priced brands worth considering as you work on developing the perfect garden lighting plan for your home this season.

Wilshire is a middle-market to upper-end provider of classic exterior lights. They are a name known for quality, with an original focus on sales to the hospitality industry. Now many of their designs are available to the home market, especially their outdoor line of products. From wall sconces to post lights, they offer classic designs to base a top-notch garden light design.

Kichler is another quality provider of outdoor lighting. Produced in Cleveland, Ohio since 1938, Kichler lights can meet every garden landscape light need. Their offerings include something for every need and budget. Kichler is an established company that is not afraid of innovation. They were one of the first mainstream lighting companies to adopt LED lights into their exterior lines. Many of their products are low-voltage and energy star rated. Their outdoor line of products includes wall sconces, pendant lights, pier mounts, deck mounts, spot lights, and recessed well lights.

Nuvo is a slightly less costly line that has an amazing variety of choices available. With twenty two collections and twenty five finishes. From matte black to brushed silver, there is a color and finish for every garden design. The Nuvo garden lights cost 30% less on average than Wilshire and Kichler. Overall reviews of this brand are very positive considering how cost effective much of the line truly manages to be. Their lines include low voltage and security lights as well as the more decorative flush, hanging and wall lights. Their pathway lights are well designed and clean in line.

Unique Arts offers a comprehensive line of high-quality solar garden lights. Their designs vary from an executive post lamp to staked copper lanterns. Many of the solar lights are as decorative as they are functional. From lit house numbers to solar powered crystalline flowers, these energy efficient lights never increase your power bill but provide 8 to 10 hours of lighting to your landscape.

Gardening, landscaping, and making things snappy with a little bit of garden decor love – these are all fun, passionate hobbies I take seriously. Along the way I’ve always naturally gotten into the garden lighting aspect of things, which can create some really awesome “visuals”, so to speak, in the garden. Using garden lights, one can really enhance the appeal of the garden, creating dramatic looking drop shadows and whatnot. It is really very cool to experiment with, and the only way to get started is to do what I did – do a little research and then give it a go!.

Oh – but I will give you one advantage I didn’t have; some tips from yours truly, learned from experience.

One of the first things to keep in mind when starting is that less is more. The tendency for beginners is to over light things. I admit, it’s easy to do, getting caught up in the excitement of what garden lighting can do, the next thing you know, your garden is glowing. With a bit of testing, you’ll see that the maxium less is more works for garden lighting as well.

With that in mind, and along the same kind of thinking, it‘s not just about what you light, it’s also about what you don’t light. Using garden lighting is all about the juxtaposition between what’s lit up and what’s not. This creates a spectacular visual, with lights illuminating certain aspects of the garden and keeping other parts in shadow. The parts that aren’t hit up with lights create the contrast we’re going for, and this is an important aspect to keep in mind when setting up the lights for the garden.

You will likely find it visually preferable to conceal the light source so that no one can will (without effort) find themselves looking into the light directly, or even be able to directly see where the light originates. The easiest way to hide the light is to just throw it up behind items already in your garden, such as a nice sized rock or a plant. If this isn’t possible, simply install on a glare guard over the light!

Have fun experimenting with all the different garden lighting accessories, such as frosted lenses or beam angles. These light modifiers can help create the look you are going for, as well as providing a more unique type of lighting for the garden.

Getting your garden lighting set up just the way you want it will take a bit of work, some patience, lots of experimentatin, and a can-do attitude. But if you are a gardener worth your salt, then you already have all these qualities – in which case, I know you’ll do fine setting up your new garden lighting!