Decorative string lights can be used as a landscaping tool

Lighting is an important part of any landscape design. We need to make our gardens safe and secure and also make them attractive at night. Our options are more varied than most people imagine, ranging from general purpose lighting, to spots and floodlights, and feature lighting like decorative string lights and floating lanterns.

If we don’t include lighting in our garden plan, we might trip or fall in the dark and we certainly won’t see potential intruders. Excluding outdoor lighting also limits our sense of space and increases a sense of isolation. Including outdoor lighting quite literally lights up our lives at night.

Traditionally we have used low voltage electric lights for gardens, and high voltage lights on patios or on the sides of buildings. Either way, it has meant that we have needed to use the services of electricians who are required by law (in most countries) to link up to the national grid. Laying cables in gardens for electric lighting is a tedious and usually messy job that involves digging and sometimes lifting lawn and established shrubs. Happily the increase of choice in solar lighting in recent years changes all this. Now you can buy just about any type of solar light for your garden – even a solar flag pole light to illuminate a flag if you wish. In many cases there is no installation process required. More on solar string lights

Decorative string lights are a particularly trendy choice, and one that adds opportunity to your decorative landscaping plan. You can use string lights in trees or to line structures like decks or fences. You can even use them around doorways or window frames, around arches or along the line of a roof. They come in a variety of colors including white, green, blue and red, and in different lengths, incorporating as many as 50 to more than 100 environmentally-friendly LED bulbs. More on patio string lights

Unlike regular rope lights that are made with individual bulbs, decorative string lights are made by encasing the LEDs in clear plastic. This also makes them waterproof.

If you think about how we mix different types of electric lighting in any landscape situation, you will realize that the same can be done with solar lights. Decorative string lights are pretty, while flood lights and spot lights are more practical. Solar pole lamps are both pretty and practical. Most solar lights are fitted with extra bright LEDs and they have photovoltaic cells or stand-alone solar panels that recharge Ni-MH batteries. Check our selection of solar string lights and solar rope lights

The first solar lights that used LEDs were notoriously dim. Today you can buy solar-powered floodlights that are both powerfully bright and reliable. Even decorative string lights give off quite a lot of light. Accent solar lighting is great for lighting up accent plants and for lighting up steps, paths and other areas that need to be safe at night. They are also very decorative and will add impact to your garden design. More on outdoor string lights

So do yourself a favor, investigate what’s available in terms of solar lights for landscaping. Then give it a try. You’ll be helping the environment and will save yourself a lot of money in power bills.