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!

The decision to use standard garden lights or solar garden lights comes down to everyones individual situation, skill set, and budget. Here are some points to keep in mind when sizing up your options between using solar garden lights, or standard garden lights (those that require a power source via cable.)

Solar Garden Lights are a lot easier to get set up. Why? Because there’s no cables to deal with, that’s why! All it takes is purchasing them and then placing them in the garden, taking care to make sure the solar panels (either built into the lights or running attached with a small cord) are placed in such a way to capture direct sunlight. That is all it’s going to take to power the lights, and this means it’s very easy for everyone involved.

Standard Garden Lights are harder to set up. You could run a cable on top of the ground, but that would look ridiculous. Instead, you’ll need to properly bury or at least strategically conceal the power cables. This means digging and manuevering. It might also mean some kind of electrical skills as you tweak the light set up for your garden. What this offers in trade is the ability to have a lot more control over where the lights are placed, since the cables can be routed anywhere under the ground, and no light source is not in any way related to being exposed to the sun to capture solar energy.

Another factor between these two options is the price and cost of each type of lighting. Solar garden lights cost more than standard garden lights. However, the big selling point here is that you will spend zero dollars powering them. Year after year will pass and you will have garden lights on, and will not spend a penny on keeping them on. But at the same time, the cost of standard garden lights is considerably less than that of their solar counterparts. The budget may demand a less expensive choice to start with.

One more factor is this question you may want to ask yourself: How important is it to you to use energy efficient, green lighting?

Gardeners work with the earth, and many extend their respect for the plants and trees and the air and the grass by their work in the garden. For them, it only makes sense to use solar powered garden lights, as this plays a small but important role in reducing ones overall footprint. This is something to think about it for anyone who uses garden lighting.