Help me light up this garden?

[GinAndOnIt]

Would solar fairy lights on the trees be a really tacky idea do you think? How good are solar lights these days?

This is the front garden from the driveway up to the house. I don't do a great deal to the bottom half as I can't really see it from the house so I can't really find the motivation to be constantly digging and planting. The big hedge at the top will eventually go, and I'm in the process of extending the veg patch up there. There are some lovely trees in this bottom bit though, and I wondered if they might look more interesting/welcoming if they had fairy lights on? There is also a patch behind the camera too, which is higher than road level with a big tree.

It needs some sort of light source down there and I did originally think solar stick lights all the way up the path, but I think that would cost a fortune because the path is so long. A few people have mentioned it feels very spooky walking up the path in the dark though :(

Any suggestions?

I don't know if I'd put fairy lights in the trees because firstly the trees look very dense so I'm not sure you'll see much of the lights and secondly LED fairy lights don't put out much actual light unlike old tungsten fairy light bulbs. You'd need pretty powerful lights to create much effect. I'd actually light the path instead. Google something like, 'super powerful path lights' because the ones you get from the likes of B&Q won't light up much. The cheaper the light, the smaller the pool of light thrown by them.

Ah yes you're right about the trees being dense, although I wonder if they would be better in winter (when the lights would be seen more often anyway)...
The problem with post lights is that I never seem to see any that I really like the look of, certainly not enough to spend an absolute fortune to buy enough to go up the path.

What about a rope light along the path? uk.pinterest.com/pin/380483868498715516/

We stick with battery operated fairy lights around our trees so we don't need to faff about with wiring, most turn on automatically so batteries need replacing each month and we don't have to worry about sunlight

Rudy that's the current method ;)

Perhaps I should buy each 'easily spooked' friend a torch for when they come to visit

Clark that's not a bad idea, maybe I could do that and then put some hanging lanterns just at the bottom by the steps. Hmm.

What about spotlights under the trees? I suppose not much good for lighting the way, but might make the long walk that everyone moans about a bit more interesting.

Some friends of mine have uplighters under several trees. They're solar but give a good amount of light and make the trees look very pretty

I think most people use their phone torch, but they still complain it's spooky. I don't think the slightly creaking rope swing and ladder and deathly silence helps that though

Homebase have solar lights for £1 each, reviews generally quite good.

Uplighters for trees sounds lovely .

Your garden looks more like a park !

ginger I wish there was a park keeper to mow the lawn!

I would go for spotlights shining up into the trees. It would look lovely!

Maybe also a couple of spots in the ground at the beginning and the end of the path, so people feel they have something to aim for.

Liara that might be a good compromise. Then I don't have to have posts that need to be evenly spaced up the path, and that I don't like the look of anyway.

I'm not sure I'm massively bothered about lighting up every speck of path the more I think about it, it's not that hard to find your way up a path in the dark and it's hardly like we've got enough friends to have visitors that regularly

So some lights under trees for a bit of decoration and a few spotlights for the tricky steps.

Uplighting the trees sounds lovely, those solar lights that push into the ground are v ugly.