This week we bring you a selection of ‘Light in the Garden’ photos from Primrose Gardens to admire. The lighting in your garden can make all the difference, and create a beautiful ambience, especially at night.
With the sun set to appear again next week, we’re looking forward to seeing more photos. Next week’s theme will be ‘Furniture’ – whether it be a rattan dining set or a swinging chair, we just love to see your photos.
A wonderful selection of lighting from the users of Primrose Gardens.
If you are feeling inspired, why not explore our selection of garden lighting, where we’ve a range of options such as pond lighting, candles, solar lighting and more!
Amie is a marketing enthusiast, having worked at Primrose since graduating from Reading University in 2014.
She enjoys all things sport. A keen football fan, Amie follows Tottenham Hotspur FC, and regularly plays for her local 5 a side football team.
It’s that time of year again for getting the decorations out of the loft and taking your home to tinsel town. But as any competitive neighbour will know, half the fun is in sprucing up the outside of your house with some festive glow. With our quick outdoor Christmas lighting tips, your house will soon be on the way to becoming the highlight of the street.
1. Use outdoor lights
Let’s get the basics out the way first. Always make sure the lights you use are meant for outside – sufficiently insulated and waterproof.
2. Illuminate the features
Throw some spotlights or trailing lights onto the centrepieces of your garden, like birdbaths and water fountains. It’ll add depth and texture to your display.
3. Use outdoor powerpoints
It’s always safer – and helps with home security – to power your lights from outdoor sockets rather than trailing plugs and cables from the house. Be sure that wires don’t become a trip hazard.
4. Light garden paths
Give your guests a special welcome over the Christmas period by bordering your pathways with lights. Your visitors will find it easier to walk at night and it creates a friendly atmosphere.
5. Fix with tape
When you’re installing your lighting, it’s much better to use electrical tape than anything like nails or staples. You don’t want any sparks flying on the big day!
6. Use light nets
Decorating trees and shrubbery can be tricky. A net strung with LED lights is a great, simple way to cover bushes with evenly-spaced spots.
7. Mind the neighbours
If you’re going all out with your festive display, be sure to warn or discuss with your neighbours first. You don’t want to make enemies this time of year! Remember to switch the lights off overnight too.
8. Light up other decorations
Bring a magical glow to existing garden decorations. Wind some mini string lights into a wreath or add spotlights to other festive ornaments on the doorstep for a magical display any time of day.
9. Use battery lights
It’s important not to overload the mains circuits with all your garden lighting. Use a mix of plugin and battery powered lights to spread the load. LED candles are very handy for placing spots of light wherever you like in the garden.
10. Hang decorative lights
Once you’ve wrapped your trees with string lights, hang a few lit baubles or stars for an extra dimension. This works particularly well on skeletal winter trees.
So there are our top 10 tips for garden lighting in the winter. Let us know your ideas and advice in the comments below.
George works in the Primrose marketing team. As a lover of all things filmic, he also gets involved with our TV ads and web videos.
George’s idea of the perfect time in the garden is a long afternoon sitting in the shade with a good book. A cool breeze, peace and quiet… But of course, he’s usually disturbed by his energetic wire fox terrier, Poppy!
He writes about his misadventures in repotting plants and new discoveries about cat repellers.
Good morning Saturday! Blue sky and billowy trees and (as yet) no rain. Although I quite liked rain last weekend, (sorry Jubillee-ers) because it meant I didn’t have to cut the hedge 🙂 It’s 200 feet of rampant, scratchy green stuff that not only needs cut but cleared and bagged up and, I’m sorry, that’s nearly as bad as recurring villain ‘ironing’. And because it looks like it’ll be bright, I’ll have no excuses today. Still, it would be way too rude to get out the noisy machine at the moment (7am) so I will contemplate nature’s changes before I drift out with a cup of coffee and see what’s occurring.
That’s what, as a new new ‘gardener’ I’m kind of getting to like: in the five days of Welsh wind and torrential rain, the garden will have changed without me having set foot in it. Last weekend my first ever carnation opened in the new raised beds. And I know it’s survived this week as I can see it from the living room window. Looks a tad lonely, but hopefully some friends are due to arrive fairly soon. When I took the picture I didn’t realise first friend would be the Olympic slug!
I put plenty in, I just don’t have any idea what the full bloom effect will look like. Well, I sort of do… There will be pink carnations sitting beside multi-coloured lupins (which will always make me smile because my Mum had them in the gravely bit between her and next door and I did a project about them in school). There are some other things planted at equal space on the other side with quite big velvety leaves but I can’t remember what they are. I know they are not hostas because I’m steering clear of them after one of them decided to eat my front garden. If my kids had grown that quickly they’d have been in the Guinness Book of World Records. I’m afraid I don’t like plants that are so confident they dominate your garden in a couple of seasons but I suppose once I get to grips with what plants are what (!) and how I’m supposed to tame them, I might change my mind.
Anyway, the mixed arrangement next to the carnation plant is likely to be a splendid multi coloured surprise given my inability to retain things like plant names, but still, much better than the riot of weeds, brambles and horrible things that were there last year. It is going to look mega fab when the gravel goes down there. Hopefully this weekend or next depending on whether I eat my Weetabix, and get myself down to order the stuff. I’ve got an aerial pre gravel picture so you can see what you think when I get it done.
My garden renovation is coming along well. The only dilemma is ‘Rhu’. The garden was sparkly splendid after lots of rain. Clearly I hadn’t knocked enough holes in some of the planters and I had to de-waterlog the one with honeysuckle in. Everything else looks charmingly healthy, bursting with enthusiasm after the right royal rain. Indeed the hedge, who will not be given an affectionate name because I still begrudge the achy hours of cutting it, looks perkier than ever and perfectly pleased at growing so quickly in such a short time. Grrr. And Rhu was today’s big smile: I moved Rhu in the great liberation of the far back in the first sunshine of this spring. Rhu was not too charmed as she was already producing chunky stems of fruit, but no, she couldn’t stay so she got uprooted to a new home approximately six feet away. At first she looked ok but then had a major wilt and I was quite worried about her. Thankfully though, she has enjoyed the weather and there are eight or nine shoots that weren’t there last week. Lucky she delivered actually, because the six foot move wasn’t properly thought out and I did consider further relocation. New shoots, she wins, no hard feelings.
I’m sorry– I didn’t cut the hedge. It rained again. And I this is all so much fun … Jasmine, the newest addition to the newly emerging garden has obviously been planted in exactly the right place… two plants, one either side of the best branch wigwam in the west. Made by my niece and nephew from the rudest, hardest to cut, balance on whatever you can balance on to reach the branch, branch (and hedges shouldn’t even have branches, should they?) The wigwam was built by the three of us in the last light of a Saturday afternoon. It seemed like a properly aunt-y thing to do, especially as they never know what to expect with me (which means they are rarely disappointed). I wanted to keep the wigwam because, for me, it’s a kind of spontaneous art feature.
There isn’t a lot of wiggle space in it which is a bit disappointing but I want it to be around for a while as a happy memory. It looks crooked and wonky as natural things should. And Jasmine just loves it! She has started sprouting new shoots which she is starting to wrap round the legs of it. I added a small string of dragonfly solar lights and it does exactly what I wanted, makes me smile 🙂
It’s the little things sometimes, isn’t it? I’ve been so pleased with progress so far in renovating my garden and sifting through all the ideas that keep drifting into my head, that I sometimes forget that it is the maintenance things that give the full effect. So I cut the grass! It’s getting easier now because the garden’s divided and some of it is barked and gravelled, so the whole task is much more manageable. It helps too when the strimmer behaves, which following the usual groan and burp noises that signify ‘the nylon broke’, strimmer and I settled down to re-nyloning the spindle. The little raised arrows gave me a clue and I’m happy to report that no more unpleasant noises were emitted.
But with the sun out you just can’t keep ignoring stuff, can you? Ironing, car washing, more ironing and cleaning the oven just don’t even scratch the surface compared to washing the fascias out the back. Suffice to say I did not iron, wash the car or clean the oven, I treated myself to a sponge wash up a step ladder to make the plastic trim shine again. I am just such an exciting person. It worked though, the garden needs a back drop that doesn’t irritate you when you sit down after doing your jobs or when you are just admiring nature’s work. Call me even sad but I then realised, with prompting, that rather than uprooting, re-digging and cementing a new washing line in, that I could revitalise the ones I’ve got with a tin of Hammerite. A very pleasing hours work with instant results and, unlike after fascia washing, I was not soaking wet. The neighbours probably think I’m sad too. I decided to put solar lights in the top of each washing line post so that at night it looks like I have two streetlights in the garden 🙂
River View House Garden
Our Haven
Amie is a marketing enthusiast, having worked at Primrose since graduating from Reading University in 2014.
George works in the 
