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For those of us who are avid gardeners and spend hours on end perfecting out outdoor retreats, it’s only right that they are seen at night. Besides, you didn’t spend all that time replanting, adding new flowerbeds and lights to the garden for them all to remain dormant at night.
Contrary to what many people believe, hooking up your garden with lights, accessories and powering tools like leaf blowers and electric lawnmowers can be done without running power from the house. All you’ll need is a high-wattage generator and a great garden and you’re all set.
In this article, we’ll take a look over a few ways to get the most out of your garden at night and what you can use to power all of these awesome new additions.
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden large enough to accommodate taller trees like pines, desert palms or gum trees then you’re probably wanting to show them off at night time. By far the most elegant and stylish way to do this is to have tree lights or uplights installed in the ground beneath the trees. These uplights, of course, point upwards, directly illuminating the tree’s trunk and limbs but nothing else around the tree, making sure it stands out in the garden.
For those who don’t want an in-ground solution, you can also use spotlights. These simply stick into the lawn with a cable running back to the house or generator and shine a light on the entire tree or garden.
A second fantastic way to add lighting to your garden and its plants in the evening is to install footpath step lighting. Not to be confused with path lights, step lights are installed underneath steps and create a soft glow-like outline around each step. These lights are great additions to a well-lit garden and also work well to improve safety at night.
The best part about these step lights is that they can also be installed underneath footpaths in the garden, emitting a slight glimmer from the garden at night.
You’ve likely noticed these types of lights on trees at outdoor restaurants. They’re generally LED strip lights wrapped around tree trunks and limbs to illuminate the shape, size and height of the tree. Although these types of lights were traditionally reserved for festive holidays only, they’ve become a somewhat permanent addition to many backyard and front yard gardens.
If you’re planning on this style of lighting for your garden on a temporary basis, it might be worth considering powering them with a portable generator rather than permanently wiring them, underground, from your home.
Using a generator will mean that when there’s a family event or holiday, you’ll be able to switch them on using a portable generator like one from Outbaxcamping. Then when it’s time to pack up, you can simply remove them from the trees and put the generator away. The generator will help out during installation as well, by power the drills and other tools you’ll need to stick the lights to the trees.
One of the more common garden lighting solutions you’ll notice around town are a garden path or lawn lights. If you have a large garden you’ll even be able to install these beside the footpaths inside the garden itself to illuminate pathways to bench seats hidden within the garden.
These lights typically run alongside footpaths and can be powered by solar, mains power or generators. If your garden has a pronounced perimeter, use these lawn lights to line the boundary and you’ll have an impressive illuminated ‘frame’ for the garden.
