Light up your garden

If you plan to enjoy a walk in your garden, host a party there or use it as a family space, the one garden accessory you wouldn’t want to miss is  garden light. Garden lights aren’t merely an aesthetic addition to your garden, they’re utilitarian too.

With garden lights in place, dusk needn’t down the curtains on your outdoor parties. Safety concerns of frolicking children and pets should not bother you now; light up the paths, walkways and pool-sides adequately to prevent falls and injuries.
So, how do you choose garden lights?

First, sketch out a plan of your garden’s intended appearance. A mind-boggling variety of garden lights, each appropriate for a different purpose is available. For lighting up an entire large space, ambient lighting by means of bright lights mounted on lamp-posts or fixed to walls, besides hanging lamps are helpful. For hassle-free movement, you need path-lights.

Marine lighting involves the use of underwater lights to illuminate water areas like pools and ponds. If aesthetics rate high on your agenda, opt for accent lighting, where you’ll light up a particular attractive feature of your garden with down-lights or up-lights, be it a clump of pretty pots, a huge tree or some garden garnishing like a statue. You can also position the lights to create either a silhouette or a shadow effect. Wall lights can also be thrown in.

Spike lights are usually scattered around the garden, especially in the flower-beds. Draping twinkle lights around tree-trunks is one of the most popular ideas. You can unleash your creativity, innovate and watch your garden get transformed into a veritable fairyland!

A wide variety of designs in antique, traditional and contemporary styles await selection. The ‘garden torch’, inspired by the age-old tiki torch, is ideal for a garden party. But, take care, for it’s readily inflammable. So, fix it firmly at spots where other sources of fire/light aren’t at hand, such that they can’t be easily knocked over. There are also rope lights, flood lights and ceiling lights.

While external wall-lights are installed primarily for security reasons, they can also be employed to boost your garden’s aesthetics alongside. Solar post lights are recommended for lighting up paths and walkways. Solar-powered garden lights charge an internal battery with sunlight.

There are both individual garden lights harbouring their own solar cell without wiring and lights that can be wired to a central solar cell. The latter’s advantage is that the single solar cell can be placed in a spot enjoying maximum sunlight. Among individually-powered ones, however, those remaining in shade during the day fail to emit light at night.

What are the technicalities to consider? Firstly, depending on your particular lighting scheme, choose from among halogen, LED, solar and traditional garden lights. Energy-saving and low-voltage bulbs are environment-friendly options emitting light that doesn’t glare but is adequate for your specific purpose.

Wireless solar lights and LED lights are known energy-savers besides being economical. If high-powered bulbs seem indispensable, at least, turn them off when not required. Low voltage lights create a much safer outdoor space.

Take some precautions. Use only high-quality, weather-proofed stuff even if expensive. Check whether lamp-location hinders watering or mowing of the lawn or if wires or cables crisscross inlaid watering-pipes.

When going for solar lighting, ensure the solar cells get sufficient sunlight. Refrain from lighting up every area in your garden for overuse of lighting is garish. Use the play of shadows subtly.