DIY De-Lights – Lighting Up Your Garden During Lockdown

This time of year starts getting busier in the gardens as the weather starts to warm up and the clocks have changed to give us that precious extra daylight. April and May would usually see the garden centres getting a lot busier as garden lovers flock to find the ingredients of their next garden concoction. Our team is getting busier too.

A popular addition to the garden designs we create is the lighting. Just a few well-placed lights can turn absolutely any garden into a magical haven. We know you’re limited on what lighting you can purchase for your garden right now, so we’ve created a few DIY ideas to keep you busy and tide you over until a more permanent solution can be created:

Christmas Time, Mason Jar and Wine

Okay so that was a terrible improvisation, but this one is a triple whammy for the garden. Some people have joked about creating a pretend Christmas and putting their decs up to liven up their homes during the lockdown.

Whether you want to go all out advent or not, if you have a good rummage through your Christmas decorations, you’ll no doubt find a string of lights (or ten!). White lights look great all year round – in fact, many people just leave them up outside anyway to save the Groundhog Day loop of lights up, lights down – they just don’t switch.

If your outdoor space is the main piece of the outdoors that you have at the moment, making it pretty for the evenings too gives that extra time to enjoy it. With the lights, you can string them around the edge of the garden or around any outdoor structures as usual, or if you have plenty of lights, you could even string them across the garden to create an overhead mesh of light. It would be just like looking up at the stars!

If you have plenty of mason jars or glass jam jars, these are really pretty if you pop a tealight in them and you have a makeshift hurricane lantern. Dot them around the garden in places they’ll not pose a fire hazard if they’re knocked over and they make the garden look magical. If you have twine or wire of any type, you can make handles to hang the jars around the garden too. Wrap the wire around the top of the jar, being sure to pull it tight and securing it. Attach another piece to one side of the wire and loop it up and over to make a handle, before attaching it to the other side and trimming it.

These are great projects to keep you busy too. If you have any outdoor friendly glass paint or glue, paintings dots, swirls, stars etc and adding some glitter makes them twinkle even more in their candlelight.

Finally – Let’s Not Forget the Wine!

You have the Christmas lights overhead, the glittery jars sparkling around the garden. Now you need candles on your tables. Take some wine glasses and pop tealight candles into them before adding small shades from inside the house. Voila! Little lockdown lamps!

If you happen to break any of your wine glasses, they also make useful candle holders. By simply sticking the sharp stem (very carefully!) into the ground, it keeps the sharp end out of harm’s way and the glasses look great with some sand inside and candles.

Looking to extend your garden time? Call our design team today on 0116 210 0760 to discuss your lighting options with us.