Landscaping With Lights At Night

Bring a little romance into your garden or backyard at night by adding lights to the landscaping. For a special occasion, or just so you enjoy your plantings at night, here are a few ideas for adding lights to your landscaping.

Southwestern Enchantment

Add a touch of the southwest to your garden at night with the soft glow of farolitos. Farolitos are a tradition in Santa Fe during the Christmas season, and they're simply candles placed in brown paper bags that are partially filled with sand. You can often see them lining roads and walkways and garden paths in December.

With their warm orange light, they can be used any time of year to give your garden a magical feel, and they're so simple that anyone can make them. Another traditional southwestern decoration during the winter months that can be used to add lighting to your landscaping in the same way is the luminaria.

Luminarias are tin candle holders with holes punched into them to create intricate patterns and designs. It requires a bit more effort to create one, but they can be quite lovely as lights in your landscaping.

Trees And Things

You can also use electrical lights to accent landscaping features, such as trees and plantings. Some plants can take on a new look at night when lit from below, and you can appreciate a standout tree in a new way. You can also hang light from their limbs to set a nice and romantic mood.

Just get some rice paper lanterns to hang from their limbs for their soft lights and colors. You could also hang white Christmas lights in the trees or wrap them in bushes to create a firefly-like effect.

If you have a garden with tropical plants, consider tiki torches and get colored paper lanterns for some whimsical landscaping lights. If you’re going for the tiki club look though, you might be able to find blowfish lanterns as well. Who knows, you might even be motivated to throw your own luau!

Practical Considerations

As fun as these ideas are, if you just want to enjoy your garden at night on a more regular basis, you should invest in some good electrical lights. Always make sure that your paths are well-lit but try to avoid anything too harsh. Outdoor lights do come in a wide variety of colors and styles from Craftsman-style lights to more modern ones.

With a little ingenuity you can do a lot to make you garden as beautiful and inviting at night as it is during the day!