The Beginner’s Guide to Garden Technology - Part 2: Garden Lighting - and Solar Power
Garden Lighting
At Haddon Studio we are firmly of the opinion that when it comes to lighting a garden at night subtle is best. For example, grazing features, planting, and walls with light picks out elements, and their textures, without feeling like Blackpool Illuminations.
Of course more lighting where you sit - to relax or dine - is perfectly reasonable and such area lighting will often be key to a garden’s success. And from a pure safety aspect, sufficient light for garden steps to be clearly demarcated is vital to avoid trips and falls.
Within the garden you can also subtly use lighting to spotlight key features not only through grazing them with light but also by silhouetting them (lighting a wall behind a plant, for example, to show the silhouette of the plant in front) or the opposite effect - having the light source in front of the plant to reveal the shadow on a wall behind.
Personally though I like spread-lighting - using light fittings that light downwards (and downlighter fittings on walls). This is a more subtle garden lighting effect, demarcating paths, highlighting specific areas and plants, and most importantly a no point blinding the garden user. There is no worse sin than to have any garden lighting that shines blindingly into people’s eyes.
The advantage of spread-lighting is also that it also helps with maximising biodiversity within the garden. By not shining lights upwards you minimise light pollution. This in turn makes your garden far more attractive to nocturnal wildlife - especially the 17 (possibly 18) species of bat resident in the UK.
This is because many bats will avoid brightly lit gardens. In addition it has been posited that artificial light at night is leading to insect declines, especially moths - it will certainly disorientate and exhaust them leading them to be at greater risk of predation (and therefore less able to perform their function as nocturnal pollinators). Just as with humans too much artificial life can also disrupt the natural circadian rhythms of the birds and mammals with whom you share your garden space.
Solar Powered Garden Lighting
Possibly one of the best ways of having some garden light, whilst ensuring its impacts are low, is to install solar powered lights.
We all know that certain makes of solar light can be dim, flimsy, and prone to not lasting very long. They are however inexpensive which makes them easily replaceable…but not very sustainable if used in this way. There are however better quality alternatives.
Solar lights are charged by a photovoltaic cell - and in the UK this is good news because it means than it reality it is light, rather than direct sunlight, which provides them with a charge. Quality though is important - the better the solar cell, the battery that stores the energy, and the fewer lights being powered by the cell and battery, the better the light is likely to be.
You will also have options - fairy lights, festoon lights (like fairy lights but with bigger bulbs), stake lights, and lanterns are all available - indeed you can also by USB rechargeable lanterns that you can take outside when needed (but these are not therefore solar powered).
Therefore remember that when it comes to lighting you garden you don’t need to break the bank or install buried cables to get the right look and feel at night. With technology constantly evolving the quality of solar lighting will continue to evolve and in the meantime they can be the perfect solution for subtle lighting at dusk when the nights draw in, and to add interest when they draw back out again.