Not only is garden lighting functional, many landscapers consider it a kind of art. The best lighting does more than just make a yard visible at night; it adds color and depth to your property. As interest in lighting has increased, more and more magazines and web sites have begun to devote space to best practices in garden lighting. There, one can find guidance on how to make their yard look larger, how to decide which features to light, and where lights should be placed for optimum efficacy.

When adding lights, make sure that they will enhance the features already present in your yard. The goal is not to mimic the daytime conditions, but rather to create a unique night time look. When lighting a formal garden, for instance, it is generally best to stick to unobtrusive, white lights. Most formal gardens are lit by lights that are mounted at either ground level, near a path, or those that are made for use with fountains or ponds. Informal gardens may be lit with colored lights that are placed in unexpected ways to play with shadows and perspectives.

Home and garden magazines often devote some space each month to garden lighting, but some home landscapers find their pages to be limiting. More casual discussions may be found on message boards, whether through the site of a favorite magazine or one that is run by a third party. The back and forth discussion with fellow gardeners that these sites provide can be an invaluable tool in designing a one-of-a-kind lighting scheme. On these boards, one can often find experts who are more than willing to share their expertise on choosing lights with the correct wattage and safely wiring your garden.

There is no correct or incorrect way to install garden lighting. With a little guidance, anyone can make a plan that will complement their yard.

Quite possibly the hottest fad in garden lighting today is the use and installation of solar light fixtures in your garden.  These lights can be used for many different purposes, from accident lighting, to highlight, to being a light source for your deck or patio.  They also make landscape lighting installation a breeze because there’s no cords to run.  However, there is one weakness that it seems like plagues these lights, the just simply don’t seem to be bright enough in many circumstances.

Solar lights never seem like they are bright enough mainly because, depending on the shape and style of the light fixture, the solar panel that is used to power it is too small to effectively power the light, especially on cloudy days.  Even while solar cells are constantly improving every day, they still only convert a small portion of the sunlight that falls on them into actual energy.  The smaller the solar panel, the smaller the area you have to collect sunlight and the results in less energy overall for your light fixture.

Luckily, there is a way that you can overcome this inherent weakness.  Instead of buying lights with individual solar panels affixed to them, try to buy a set of lamps that comes with a separate solar panel.  These packages should come with several light fixtures that you can use to light up a certain area as needed.  The solar cell that comes with these lights is usually many times more effective and much bigger than any of the solar cells that are usually on lights.  You can also install the panel in an area that gets direct sunlight while you want your lights to shine somewhere else.  All of this equals more flexibility in design and most of all, brighter lights all night for you.

Adding garden lights to your yard is a great way to enhance the look of your existing landscaping. There are a number of different garden light varieties, so you can vary their size and wattage based on the placement in your yard. Most lights can be purchased both online and through most home and garden stores, and are offered at price points to fit any budget.

A traditional garden light variety is the strobe light. Strobe lights are available in a number of different wattages, but they are typically used to light a large area with a high intensity. Halogen lights have become increasingly popular both for their brightness and the crisp, white light they produce. For those who would like to illuminate large landscaping features, or the front of their homes, strobe lights are a perfect choice.

Another trend in garden lighting is the installation of small lights along a walkway. In most cases, these low lights will be placed on either side of a front or garden pathway spaced just a few feet apart. Though wired lights may be hooked up to a timer, solar lights may be the best option for this particular placement. Solar lights will eliminate the need for wiring, and their solar panels will act as automatic timers, with lights coming on as soon as the sun goes down.

In addition to lights mounted on the ground, more and more people are using strings of lights to decorate foliage in their yard year round. White string lights add a romantic touch to any yard, and their ease of hanging means that installation can be completed in just minutes. If you are considering lighting trees far from your home or an available electrical outlet, string lights that are lit with solar power are a great choice.

Regardless of the lighting scheme that you envision, there are garden lights that will meet your needs.