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!

A garden pond can be a lot of work, and something else to consider is the health of the fish in regards to the lighting set up used in the garden.

For example, you might be wondering if the garden lights may interfere with the health of the fish? Do lights disturb them? Do they keep them up at night?

Wait, do fish even go to sleep?

To this latter question, sleep is a tricky word in regards to fish, but yes, for all intents and purposes, fish have day/night cycle and it revolves around the lighting they are exposed to.

Ensuring that the lights won’t interfere with the fish is pretty simple. You should first of all not shine any lights directly into the water. This not only wouldn’t benefit the fish, but it also isn’t a very attractive set up for the garden. It’d be better for the lights to illuminate the area. You wouldn’t want any of the lights themselves to be poking out and visible. (See our article “Garden Lights for Beginners” for more information on concealing the source of light and why it’s important.) Secondly, the most important part of having a garden pond with fish and having proper lighting is to put the lights on a timer. Use the timer to control the lights and have them turn off once it gets late, say, around 11 or 12. It would be best if the lights do not simply turn off but instead slowly fade, as this will give time for the fish to adjust to the change in light, mimicking what any natural habitat would provide.

Another aspect of garden lighting and ponds that we should mention is safety. Having cables running into the ground near a body of water poses an inherent risk. It’s important to use common sense and care when working around water and electrical cables. That being said, garden lighting cables are stepped down a notch in their voltage capacity for this very reason.

One way around this problem is to use solar garden lights. This way there are no cables and no electrical currents to worry about. But in order to provide the fish with a consistent day/night schedule, you will need solar garden lighting which is equipped to a timer. Otherwise, they may shine all night!