Garden Lighting Ideas: Paths, Patios and Planting

Most British gardens are lit by one floodlight over the back door, triggered by a motion sensor, which turns the whole garden into a car park for ninety seconds and then abandons it.

A garden wants the opposite: several small, warm, low sources that light the things worth looking at and leave the rest dark. Here is how to lay one out, and what it takes to power it.

On this page

• The principle: light objects, not space
• Paths and steps
• The patio and seating
• Trees, planting and walls
• Mains, low voltage or solar
• Weather ratings
• Timers, sensors and dusk to dawn
• Neighbours, wildlife and dark skies
• Six mistakes worth avoiding
• In short
• Common questions

The principle: light objects, not space

Indoors, you light a room. Outdoors, there is no room — there is no ceiling to bounce light off and no walls to contain it, so light aimed at open space simply disappears.

What works outside is lighting things: a path, a step, a tree, a wall, a table. Everything between them can stay dark, and should. A garden with six small pools of light reads as deep and considered. A garden lit evenly reads as a supermarket car park.

The second principle is brightness restraint. Outdoors your eyes are dark-adapted, so 100 to 300 lumens per fitting is plenty. Anything brighter destroys the adaptation and makes everything beyond it look black.

Paths and steps

Staggering matters more than it sounds. Matched pairs down both sides read as a runway; alternating them makes a path feel like a route through a garden.

The Solar Pathway Lights are 65cm, stake into the ground and need no cable at all, which is the realistic answer for a path where running armoured cable across a lawn is out of the question. Where there is power, the Landscape Bollard Light at 60cm is the wired equivalent and throws a cleaner pool.

Steps deserve their own light. A change of level in the dark is the one genuine hazard in a garden. Light the tread from the side or above, never from straight on, so the edge of each step casts a small shadow and becomes visible.

The patio and seating

The patio is the part of the garden you actually occupy, and it wants the same treatment as a room: several low sources rather than one bright one.

• Light from the walls, not from above. Wall lights at 170 to 200cm graze the wall and spill onto the seating without shining into anyone's eyes. The IP65 Up-Down Aluminium Light in 41cm or 61cm, or the smaller Waterproof Up-Down Surface Light.
• Three modest fittings beat one floodlight. Always.
• Nothing above a dining table outside unless it is under a roof. The flying insects will find it within minutes.
• Keep the table itself unlit and let the surrounding walls do the work. Candles finish the job better than anything electrical.

Where there is no power at the far end of a terrace, the Solar Wall Light charges by day and comes on at dusk by itself.

Trees, planting and walls

This is where a garden stops being lit and starts being designed.

• Uplight a tree from the base, 30 to 60cm out from the trunk, angled to catch the canopy. One tree lit from below does more for a garden at night than ten path lights.
• Graze a wall or fence with a fitting close to its surface, so the texture of brick or timber shows. The up-down fittings above do this on a wall; at ground level, a spike light angled upwards achieves the same.
• Light the far boundary, not the middle. A lit back wall makes a garden read as longer, exactly as a lit end wall does in a hallway.
• Leave the lawn dark. There is nothing to see on it, and lighting it flattens everything else.

For a driveway or a wide entrance, height beats spread: the Retro Lawn Lamp at 1.8 metres or the White Aluminium 2-Lantern Lamp Post at 2.2 metres. Everything is in outdoor lighting.

Mains, low voltage or solar

A realistic British compromise: mains for anything on the house walls, where a cable already exists, and solar for everything beyond the reach of a cable. Mixing them is entirely normal, provided the colour temperature matches.

Be honest about solar in a UK winter: a panel that charges in six hours of June sun gets two hours in December. Solar is right for a path you cross occasionally, wrong for the light you depend on at the back door.

Weather ratings

The second digit of an IP number is the one that matters outdoors.

• IP44 — splashing. Enough under a porch roof or a deep balcony soffit.
• IP54 — spray from any direction. A sensible minimum on an exposed wall.
• IP65 — jets of water. What you want anywhere fully open: paths, borders, driveways, posts.

Where a fitting carries a rating we state it on its page — the Solar Pathway Lights, the Bollard Light, the Retro Lawn Lamp and both up-down fittings are IP65. Where a page gives no figure, ask us before buying for an exposed position. The full explanation, plus the heights for lighting a front door, is in where to put an outdoor wall light. Every rating from IP20 to IP65 is explained in IP ratings explained.

Two things a rating does not cover: fit a lantern the way up it was designed, or a glass shade will collect rainwater, and expect any outdoor metal to weather faster within a few miles of the coast.

Timers, sensors and dusk to dawn

• Dusk to dawn — a photocell brings lights on as the daylight fails. Right for a front path or a gate, where you want light waiting for you.
• Timers — best for a garden scheme: on at dusk, off at eleven. Nobody needs the borders lit at three in the morning.
• Motion sensors — right at a side gate, a bin store or a shed. Wrong on a patio, where every passing cat becomes an event.
• Zones — put the path, the seating and the planting on separate controls if you can. A garden with one switch has one mood.

Neighbours, wildlife and dark skies

Worth a paragraph, because outdoor lighting is the one kind that leaves your property.

• Aim downwards. Light spilling over a fence is the commonest cause of neighbour complaints about lighting, and in England a genuinely intrusive light can be treated as a statutory nuisance.
• Use timers. Lights burning all night help nobody and cost money.
• Leave dark corridors. Hedgehogs, bats and moths all move along unlit edges. A garden with dark margins is better for them and, as it happens, better to look at.
• Keep it warm. 2700K scatters less and disturbs wildlife less than cool white, which is another reason to avoid it outside.

Six mistakes worth avoiding

1. One bright floodlight. It destroys night vision and flattens the garden.
2. Cool white bulbs. 2700K outside, always — see choosing colour temperature.
3. Path lights in matched pairs. Stagger them.
4. Lighting the lawn. There is nothing there to see.
5. A light over an outdoor table. Every insect within fifty metres will accept the invitation.
6. Relying on solar for the light you need. Wonderful for a path, unreliable at a back door in January.

In short

• Light objects — paths, steps, trees, walls — never open space.
• Path lights every 2 – 3 metres, staggered, 40 – 70cm tall.
• Patio: wall lights at 170 – 200cm, three small rather than one big.
• Trees: uplight from 30 – 60cm out from the trunk.
• 100 – 300 lumens per fitting, at 2700K.
• IP65 anywhere open to the weather.
• Timers, downward aim, dark margins for wildlife.

Common questions

How far apart should garden path lights be ?

Every 2 to 3 metres, staggered from side to side rather than in facing pairs, and set 20 to 30cm back from the path edge. Closer spacing looks like a runway; wider leaves dark gaps between the pools.

How bright should garden lights be ?

100 to 300 lumens per fitting. Outdoors your eyes are dark-adapted, so anything brighter destroys that adaptation and makes everything beyond the light look black.

Are solar garden lights any good in the UK ?

For paths and far corners, yes: they need no cable and switch themselves on at dusk. In a British winter, expect a fraction of the summer run time, so do not rely on solar for a light you actually need, such as at the back door.

What IP rating do garden lights need ?

IP65 for anything fully exposed — paths, borders, driveways and posts. IP44 is enough under a porch roof, and IP54 is a sensible minimum on an open wall.

How do you light a tree in a garden ?

With an uplight set 30 to 60cm out from the trunk, angled so the beam catches the canopy rather than the trunk alone. One well-lit tree does more for a garden at night than a row of path lights.

Should garden lights be on a timer or a sensor ?

A timer for the garden scheme — on at dusk, off around eleven — and a motion sensor only at a gate, a bin store or a shed. Sensors on a patio make every passing cat into an event.

Can my garden lights annoy my neighbours ?

Yes, and in England a genuinely intrusive light can be treated as a statutory nuisance. Aim fittings downwards, keep them warm and modest in output, and put them on a timer rather than leaving them on all night.

Walk it in the dark first

Before buying anything, walk the garden after dark with a torch and point it at the things you want to see. Wherever the torch makes the garden look better is where a light belongs — and everywhere it does not is where one would be wasted.

Send us a photo or a sketch of the garden at contact@thelightheritage.com and we will suggest the layout. We answer every message ourselves.

Browse outdoor lighting, or read the guide that goes with this one: where to put an outdoor wall light.