Add Lighting and Security to Stone Walkways, Decks and Accent Features
When we built our home we thought we had covered every detail – from the mortgage rate to the lighting. What we forgot about was path lighting.
After closing on our home and finished moving everything in, we set up for our first night. Looking outside all we could see was a long dark driveway and realized we did not take into account any outdoor garden lighting to illuminate the area.
No paths or walkway lights, light fixtures, low voltage malibu lights or bulbs – nothing.
Landscape Path Lighting for Added Security
My wife and I quickly noted it was very unsafe to have no landscape lighting leading up the path or walkway to our house.
We decided to be creative and illuminate our walkway with outdoor solar garden lighting instead of using a low voltage lighting kits. The outdoor garden lights look dimmer and boast an almost golden glow.
We put a small pond equipped with a little giant pump and put some outdoor solar lights with a copper look to them around the pond.
We then planted several Liriope muscari as a border, a few small shrubs along with some annuals for flowers throughout the area and put more garden/path type lights allowing the lights to softly illuminated the plants.
Solar Lighting – Not Enough Light
We quickly discovered that solar garden lights were not a good choice for us to actually light up our walkway in all areas. We decided to go the low voltage lighting route instead.
As we totaled up our outdoor lighting needs our total hit 67 lights and with a number that high the monthly electric bill would be running high – even with low voltage landscape lights.
We compromised – we focused on lighting close to the walkway first. These needed to be brighter so we went low voltage lighting in this area. The solar path lights and solar walkway lights were used further away from the house.
The initial cost for the outdoor garden solar light was affordable. The price difference between solar and electric outdoor garden lights was surprisingly minimal.
We used a few electric pathway lights at the back of the yard. This added security. The solar powered lights were a perfect accent to the yard. The solar outdoor garden lighting did come in handy if the electricity went out or if we forgot to turn on the electric garden lights.
We were both satisfied that with a little time and hard work we were able to create our own original walkway with a few plants a few statues and some great outdoor path garden lighting.