Garden Lights

Light the route first

The first job of garden lighting is practical: a path, a set of steps or a drive that can be walked safely at night. Start there, with low lights along the edge of the route rather than one bright light at the end of it, which dazzles as you walk towards it. Aim for pools of light that just meet, so the whole route reads as one line without any stretch left dark, and put a light at every change of level, where a missed step matters most. Once the route is lit, everything else in the garden is about how it looks.

Bollards and post lights

Bollards are the classic path light: low, sturdy posts that throw their light down and out across the ground, and are tough enough to sit beside a drive. As a rule of thumb, space them so their pools of light meet, usually every two to four metres depending on their height and output. Lamp posts and pillar lights are taller and mark a place rather than a route: a gate, the entrance to a drive, the end of a path or the corner of a terrace. A traditional post light with a glazed head suits a period house, and a slim modern column suits a contemporary garden of paving, gravel and grasses. Whatever the style, choose a height in proportion to what the post stands beside: a tall post by a low hedge looks lost, and a short one by a high gate looks like an afterthought.

Spike and ground lights

Spike lights push into the soil of a border and angle up into a shrub, a tree or a sculpture, and many have an adjustable head, so the beam can be set once the planting has grown. Because they only need a cable to reach them, they can move as the garden changes. Ground lights sit flush in a lawn edge, a path or a patio and throw their light straight up, which suits the trunk of a tree, the face of a wall or a row of pots. Both are at their best used sparingly: a few lit features against darkness look better than a garden lit evenly all over.

Layering a garden

A well-lit garden usually has three layers. The route comes first, with bollards or low posts along the paths. The features come next, with spikes and ground lights picking out a tree, a hedge or a water feature. The house itself is the third layer, with wall lights by the doors and on the terrace, where people actually sit. Keep each layer on its own switch or timer where you can, so the path can stay lit for arrivals while the features are saved for an evening outside.

IP ratings in the garden

A light at ground level has a harder life than one on a wall. IP44 keeps out splashing rain and suits a post or a bollard standing clear of the soil. For a spike in a border, where rain splashes up with soil and grit, IP65 is the safer choice, and for a ground light set into a lawn or paving, where water can sit on the face, look for IP67, which is sealed against temporary immersion.

Lighting a drive

A drive needs light in three places: at the entrance, along the edges and where it meets the house. Pillar lights or lamp posts at the entrance mark it from the road and show a visitor where to turn in. Bollards along the edges show the line of the drive without dazzling a driver, because their light falls down and out rather than towards the car. A ground light set into the drive itself must be rated to be driven over, and the product page gives each fitting's rating. Keep every fitting far enough from the edge that a wheel or an opening door cannot catch it.

Bulbs, colour and finish

More than half of this range takes a standard E27 bulb, which suits a lantern on a post and lets the brightness and colour be changed later; about a quarter have integrated LEDs, which are sealed in and need no bulb. Warm white suits most gardens and flatters planting, brick and stone; choose one colour for everything that can be seen together. Black is the most popular finish in our range and disappears against planting by day, copper and green sit quietly among plants, white and silver suit render and pale stone, and near the coast stainless steel and aluminium stand up best to salt air.