Patio & Garden Lighting Ideas

Harsh sunlight can damage house paint, furniture and anything else in its path. In some states, the sun is so strong it would be unthinkable for homes not to have patio covers of one kind or another.

Several types of shades are made from the simple to the extravagant, and there is one perfect for any home. Individual needs and tastes will determine whether a partial shade, lean-to awning, fully covered patio, motorized awning, or lattice work shade will be most appropriate.

A partially shaded outdoor space can take many forms. When a lattice work cover or pergola style shade is employed, light is filtered through a pattern of wooden slats. These work well as four post (or larger) structures which are attached to the wall, or can be even simpler with two posts on the floor and the rest leaning against the wall. Another commonly seen version of this utilizes large beams instead of intricate latticework.

Lean-to awnings can be purchased as a temporary or permanent, partially enclosed or fully enclosed patio shade. They attach to the existing building, and will form an angle towards the ground, much like an A-frame roof. This allows rain and snow, should the conditions arise, to slide off and prevent damage to the awning or disruption of an event.

Yet another option is the awning which only comes out when it is needed. Installing a retractable motorized awning is a convenient way for homeowners to have substantial shade when they need it, and push a button to roll it out of sight when they don’t. This style works well in areas such as the Southwest where the sun changes positions throughout the year, becoming much more intense during the summer; but it is equally useful in colder climates where a permanent awning may get damaged during the winters.

A poorly made patio shelter will need to be replaced in a relatively short time, so always buy the best quality available.

When it comes times for the holidays, outdoor Christmas lights are the way to go. Impress all your neighbors with your amazing light show. They will love what you have done.
Outdoor LED Christmas lights are the new thing. They look so amazing and don’t burn out easily either. If you purchase these, you will be able to use them for years to come. The icicle LED lights look amazing hanging from the side of your roof. Put them up all across the front. I like to buy outdoor Christmas rope lights also. These look good wrapped around a pole or draped over something. Net lights now come in LED also. We place these over our shrubs.

Add a little bit of flare to your yard by purchasing something for the front. The snow globes that blow up look great and last a long time. When you purchase one, it will come with everything you need to blow it up. You just have to make sure you plug this in nightly and unplug it. You won’t want to leave this one going all night long. A nice LED animal of some kind always looks good too. Reindeer are fun and a good attention to any light display. We have a snowman that is wire and LED also. These are perfect to add to your show.  And you can pair your LED lights with some low voltage landscape lighting for a dramatic look that sips energy.

Make this a tradition every year to put out your lights. Your children will look forward to it and so will the neighborhood. They will think to themselves that is the holiday season once they see your amazing lights shining at night. A timer is always a nice addition so they come on even if you forget or go out of town for the night. Get started this year. You will be amazed with what you find.

Today, the quintessential garden is preferred by most people as their outdoor room and therefore, it is very important to provide it with well-equipped garden lights. Due to this advancement, the lighting has dramatically improved in availability, size, flexibility, and affordability. There are different fitting types and brands are available in garden lighting: downlights, uplights, pathlights, backlights, and unique lights.

Garden lighting is not only used for decorating the garden, but also it provides safety and security to the home. Bollard lighting is commonly preferred for home and in small business areas. Today, fluorescent units are more preferred because of their efficiency, long life and low power requirements. Waterproof underwater lighting is also available that can be placed in pools, bog gardens, reservoirs, and ponds. Solar fountain lights are a popular choice as they do not draw energy from your main line, thus making them a convenient one-time investment.

More people today prefer low energy lights or LED lights because they come strictly in the budget giving long-lasting effect. Budget conscious people prefer this kind of lighting and this is often used for focal effects and spot lighting. Before buying the lights, one should analyze every light to select the right choice for them. Each light has its own benefits and according to the garden plans and garden items, one can choose the lighting effects. If a person wants to have a rough idea on how to place lighting, then there are many sites that provide different plans for free.

Lights can be easily bought from the local home improvement store and if one wants more variety, online is the best place to look. Many websites sell different lights at an affordable rate. The range of lights differs with the range of budget and there are many lights that suit anyone’s budget.

Homemade Wineglass Candleholders: For elegant but cheap homemade candleholders, make use of inexpensive clear wineglasses which you can usually purchase for about $1 each.  For a more eco-friendly option, you can re-use old wineglasses bought at a garage sale or from the back of your kitchen cabinet.  You can even combine glasses of several different sizes and styles as an eclectic centerpiece. Tie charms or ribbons around the stems, or use glass paint to add some color around the top. Add votive candles in small votive candleholders. A pair of homemade wineglass candleholders not only makes a pretty table decoration, but also a great gift.

Juice Glass Candleholders: Wide-based heavy glasses that hold 4-6 ounces of liquid are ideal to use as candleholders and are easy to decorate. Glue sequins, beads, or rhinestones to the outside of the glasses. Apply the embellishments in the shape of snowflakes, initials, or in geometric designs. Place candles within a clear votive candleholder, and then inside the decorated glasses (see cautionary statement below). The jewels, gems, and beads will sparkle in the candlelight.

Punched candleholders: Punched candleholders can be quite expensive, but homemade varieties are easy to make with the help of a hammer and nail. Fill a clean metal can of any size 3/4 full water, and place it in the freezer. This stabilizes the metal so it doesn’t dent too much from the punching process.  After the water freezes solid, use a nail and hammer to create numerous holes that will let candlelight shine through. Plan the design in advance using a fine-point marker, or create random punch holes to look like scattered stars. Allow the ice to melt, then wrap any sharp edges with electrical tape (you can use colored tape if you wish), and use indoors or outdoors. You can use a coffee can as a centerpiece for a larger patio table, or smaller cans for side tables, coffee tables and as gifts.

Are you trying to increase the crop output of your indoor garden without breaking the bank in the process? Do you want bigger flowers, fruits and vegetables without having to spend all of your time and money in the process? If the answer to either of these questions is yes then you may benefit from this article because today we are going to going over some easy ways to make your indoor plants produce higher yields of crops with minimal effort.

The first thing that you must do before doing anything else is make sure that you have proper lighting. Providing your indoor plants with grow lights will greatly increase their production as the light from the grow lamps is almost exactly like the sun’s rays. If you already have mature plants and just want to use the grow lights for production uses then I would suggest using red spectrum LED grow lights as they produce the light that is needed for the flowering stages of your plant. If you are trying to use a grow light for both the growth stages and flowering stages then I would recommend using full spectrum LED grow lights as they provide both areas of the grow spectrum lighting.

Pruning is the next thing that provides plants with large crop yields. If you are looking to have a lot of smaller fruits or veggies then prune your plants at the top or primary stalk as this will force the plant to grow more stalks. If you are looking to have fuller vegetables and fruits then prune the side stalks as this will point more of the plants growing juice toward the remaining intact fruits.

The last thing that you can do to cheaply increase the yield of your plants is to fertilize them correctly. The proper way to fertilize your plants is once a month with about a handful per quart of dirt. If you really want to make sure that you are getting a even spread of fertilizer then mix the potting soil with the fertilizer until all you see is dirt and a couple of specs of fertilizer.

When you first hear about rugs for the garden, the whole idea seems strange. After all, you know how difficult it can be to keep an indoor rug looking good when it has muddy feet and heavy foot traffic to contend with. How on earth, are outdoor patio rugs supposed to survive with all the dirt from your garden so close at hand and so easily trodden in by careless kids (and adults!)? It does not seem like outdoor rugs could be useful for more than the few days (or hours) they will stay looking good.

But outdoor rugs have been designed so stay looking good whatever (literally) you throw at them. If they get covered in mud, no problem. If they are outside in the baking sun (something which would fade other rugs very quickly), they will stay true in color because they are designed to be fade resistant. If they get wet, they will not rot unlike ordinary carpet left outside for any length of time.

You do need to care for your outdoor rugs, however, if you want them to stay looking good on your patio from week to week as well as last for years and years in your garden.

The main thing to do is to hose them down regularly with the garden hose to keep them looking clean. You can make this a fun game for the kids until they catch on that you are really getting them to do a little chore! Once they are clean, lay them out to dry (or better still hang them over a line for quicker drying if you can).

The only other thing that you could consider doing is to take your rug indoors over winter after it has had a good clean and is dry. This will spare it from getting particularly battered by the harsh weather and it will keep it clean so that you do not have a nasty cleaning task in the spring. You can simply roll it up and store it. Alternatively, use it indoors as many of these rugs are attractive enough to be used inside your home too.

Creating an outdoor living area on your porch or patio or deck should not stop with choosing the right furniture pieces and accessories alone, but also by adding outdoor patio lighting selections as well.

Have you ever been to a public patio area perhaps in a hotel or restaurarant where the ambiance seemed to really draw you in? The patio area could have been large and open or small and intimate and regardless of whether the landscape plants in them were are real or not, the area seemed to have an effect on anyone who took the time to sit for a while. If you stopped to look closer and really investigated any of these public areas, you would probably notice that aside from the arrangement, it’s actually the lighting that gives the special ambiance.

This is the same result that patio lighting fixtures will give to your outdoor areas at your home. Now, who doesn’t want to enhance their already beautiful outdoor setting to an amazingly indescribable level? Well, if you ever decide to do so, then the very first things you should do is determine how you would like to light up your outdoors. Since there are very wide range of varieties for light colors, designs and themes, you might want to have an outline of what you’d like your outdoor area to look like before you jump into buying anything.

Once you come up with a plan in your mind, the next thing to do is go online or to your local home improvement or lighting store and take a look at what is available. Keeping not only your budget but also
your idea of what type of light fixtures you want in mind, you can then purchase what you need. As simple as that, you can have a set of patio lights that will bring your desired mood to your outdoor living area.

Ah, the lazy, hazy days of summer are fast approaching, and in the meantime, we are all out getting a taste of the joys that springtime can bring.  With the improvement in the weather, we all tend to want to be outside for longer and longer periods of time, and that extends to when the sun goes down as well.  If you want a way to really make your patio a fun and inviting space that you are drawn to after dark, you may want to consider investing in some inexpensive patio string lighting this year.

Why should you think about string lighting as opposed to other types of lighting?  Well, it’s really not a “one or the other” type of decision.  String lights don’t replace other types of lighting around your patio, deck or landscaping.  They are not a solution in place of flood lights, post lights, or step lights.  Lights that you can string around your patio space, however, add a funky and festive feel to your patio space so that it feels like you’re at a party every time you step out onto the patio.

When it comes to string lighting, you have a choice between solar powered and electrical powered lights.  Solar patio lights, of course, have the benefit of being environmentally friendly and not increasing your electrical bills.  Another benefit to choosing solar when it comes to string lights is that you are not constrained by where you hang the lights because you don’t have to worry about the end of the string reaching an outlet or having to be plugged into an extension cord.  This gives you a lot more flexibility as to where you can string your lights from.

You also have many style choices to select from with these types of lights.  You can get a cheap set of plastic theme lights for a party or you can invest in a set of more enchanting small globes or lanterns that add charm to your patio space.  Whatever type you choose, you will find that you can really make an impact on your patio space by adding some string lighting.

There can be a number of reasons why you may want to use garden lighting in your front or backyard spaces.  The most promising way to use it is for accent lighting in and around your patio space.  This helps to not only provide light, but also a great tone and ambiance to your garden area.  Let’s discuss some of the basic features of these landscape lighting ideas and principles and go into a bit more detail.

With regard to outdoor lighting, there are a variety of topics we could address.  To begin with, you’ll notice that there are ways of illuminating areas of your garden or patio that are more for safety or ‘blanket’ lighting and then there are more spot lighting or mood creating types of lights.

With garden lights, what we are really looking to do is provided some nice spot lighting that can accent specific plants or our favorite shrubs and trees.  These landscape features take on a completely different look and feel in the evening, so lighting is important.  This is especially true if you use your patio space for entertaining, like with evening dinner or cocktail parties.  The added ambiance and tone you set with this type of lighting is very elegant.

There are also solar garden lights that can create more low-lying light along a path or in the garden.  There are both wired and wireless versions of these from which to choose.  Solar lighting features are quickly becoming a very popular way to illuminate outdoor spaces.  They do have some limitations with regard to holding their charge and lighting in poor weather.  This is where the wired styles come into play.  Some of these have battery backup units that can provide a strong dose of energy when the skies are cloudy or just haven’t had enough sun to really charge the lights.

The patio space itself has other types of lighting needs.  Here, you’ll want to ensure that you have a combination of both spot and blanket lighting, as we discussed above.  This will help to create separate areas or ‘rooms’ just through the lighting you choose.  With entertaining, you’ll have areas that are more for intimate conversation and other areas where you just need to avoid tripping over steps and other hardscape features.  You’ll want to provide a safe environment but not to the detriment of a great ambiance.  Keep these points in mind as you search for the perfect garden lighting.