Solar lighting
Solar lighting can be thrown about your garden haphazardly, and there is a chance that it will look good, but that chance is slim. Before you even purchase solar-powered outdoor lights, you need to be sure of where you want them and make a plan.
• Map out your garden, noting key features.
• Think of how you want objects to be lit – do you want moonlighting, accent lighting, spotlighting, grazing, etc.? Use a variety of lighting techniques for the best effect. Make sure that you find bright solar lights, with multiple LEDs, if you plan to have lighting that is beyond accent lighting.
• Make note of shady spots – solar lighting must be placed in the sun. If you want a light in the shade, it must have a removable solar panel.Consider first the features of your garden – an arbor, fountain, statue, tree, garden path, driveway, or pool. These are all things that you may want lit at night. Of course, you are not going to want them all lit in the same way. Consider using a variety of lighting techniques in your garden, but first draw up a map.
Walk around your garden and make note of important features, then take a sheet of paper and draw up a rough map of your garden. Include the abovementioned garden features. Doing this will help you visualize your garden and think of what should be lit. Look at your map and think of different lighting schemes.
Do you want to have a light high up in your oak tree, shining down, creating the effect of moonlight cascading through branches, or do you want to highlight the tree itself, lighting it from the ground up? Perhaps you want to place a light in the tree that will shine down on your fountain, splaying shadow on a garden wall.
Or, perhaps, you want to show just the silhouette of your fountain by lighting it from behind. Maybe you would rather have a gentle glow flowing from your fountain, created by solar floating lights.
Line a garden path, driveway, stairway, or pool with accent solar lighting. Use a technique called “grazing” to show off the texture of your yucca plant or the park of a tree – position the solar lights close to the textured surface.
As you can see, there are a variety of solar lighting techniques that you can utilize in your garden. However, to make sure that you use them to your best advantage, draw out a map, and thoroughly think through each lighting choice.
Once you know how you want objects to be lit, it is time to consider which solar lights to use. Note that many solar lights are meant to act as accent lights – they are relatively dim. So, for instance, to spotlight an object, you need to be sure that you have a light that will do the trick – look for one with multiple LEDs and a larger solar panel.
When shopping for the lights, you must still be considering where in your garden you plan to place them. Do you plan to place them in a shaded part? If so, you should not get lights that are self-contained units, complete with a small solar panel atop of them. Instead, look for solar lighting that utilizes a solar panel that can be placed out in the sun, even when the lights themselves reside in the shade.