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!

If you’re looking to add some light to your garden, deck, back porch, or back yard, or even the front yard – you are in luck! While it might cost you a little bit (or even a lot) of money, and take some different trial and error set ups to determine what works best, there are a ton of options out there for you to play with when it comes to lighting up the outside of your home, the outside of your deck or porch, and of course the yard and the garden itself.

With so many options on the table, where do you start? Well, that’s a good question. Let’s hold on to it for a minute while we take a look at some of the more popular types of garden and outdoor lights for  home use.

Ground Stakes. These are lights that mount into the ground. Most commonly used in and around specific plants you want to light up as well as being used to light up pathways with lights that are not easily movable. These are also commonly solar powered.

Hanging Lights. Hanging lights – and this usually means solar hanging lights – are awesome for lighting up walkways and pathways. They also add a very classy look to youre garden!

Stair Lights. For the back deck or front porch at night, stairs can be a risky venture. That’s what stair lights were invented for – to light those stairs up so you don’t have to worry about where you’re stepping! Again, solar powered stair lights are popular for this purpose as you don’t have to mess with any wiring!

Spot Lights and Flood Lights. These types of lights are used to cast a wide light over a whole area. Flood lights are more wide whereas spot lights offer a more narrow pinpoint to focus on. As with most types of outdoor lighting made these days, there are both conventional and solar powered spot and flood lights. Because of the high amount of light caste from these units, many people use standard lights over solar light.

Additionally, beyond all these types of fantastic garden and outdoor lights listed above, there are many other types of outdoor or garden lights that we can qualify under the general or misc. category of lighting. Take a look at any home or garden shop and you will see what we mean. Depending on your garden set up, these misc. types of lights could offer the lighting you are looking for to get your garden just right!

If you just want to get your feet wet – or shall I say, if you just want to get your thumb a little green, and you’re just getting started with gardening and lights and how it all works, take a look at what’s called an Aerogarden. An Aerogarden is a self-contained indoor gardening unit that also comes with it’s own lighting system. Observing how these units function could be a great start in understanding the basics of how to work with plants and lighting systems to promote healthy plants and gardens!