Landscape Lights in the back garden

I have been wanting to install some small landscape lighting in the back garden for a while. In the evenings, the wonderful view outside my window turns into a black whole, so I thought adding some lights would help to extend our enjoyment of the garden at night.

I happened to notice this set of lights on sale at our local Osh (Orchard Supply Warehouse) store. We have one just up the street, and I needed a few other items, so we took a short Father's Day trip to pick them up.

Installation was painless, if not almost foolproof. You pull a short tab to activate the rechargable battery in each light, assemble the top, globe, stake and spike and place them wherever you like in the garden. A word of warning...don't try to press the light into the ground from the top. My son, Joe, did this, despite my warnings and shattered one of the plastic globes. I was able to put it back together, but figured I would warn you so you can avoid repairing anything.

Now, since these are solar lights, they don't generate as much light as a wired system, even a low-voltage one. That said, I think they add a nice accent to the garden at night. Time will tell if they get enough sunlight to operate each evening, but on this first night, they seemed to run until we were all in bed, and that is all you really need.

If I find I like this effect, I might think about installing a wired, low-voltage system to provide some uplighting to make the garden even more visible at night.

Link: Malibu 12 Pack Solar Powered LZ420-12 Black Polymer Walk Light Kit

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