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The best garden lights for creating illuminated ambiance

HappySprout Contributor
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Garden lights illuminate your path and accent your favorite plants. Done correctly, garden lights create a wonderful ambiance for your garden and expand the hours you can enjoy it. Whether you’re looking for a soft glow or bright walkway lighting, the top choices for best garden lights on our list will be just what you need.

Garden lights provide atmosphere and allow you to stay outdoors after dark. Even purely decorative garden lights can be a welcome addition to any garden, lighting your path long after the sun goes down. Our favorites offer solar garden light options, LED garden lights, and a few other surprises. Let’s take a look at the best-rated lights available online.

Gigalumi Outdoor Garden Solar Lights

Best Overall

Gigalumi Outdoor Garden Solar Lights are functional and look great, providing a bright white LED light in a simple to use form — just pop-out the stakes , stick them into the ground, and the sun takes care of the rest. At sunset, they come on automatically and provide up to eight hours of light on a full charge. Extra-large solar panels gather light, even on cloudy days. Twelve lights come in a pack, plenty for a small to medium pathway.

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Beau Jardin Solar Lights

Best for Pathways

Beau Jardin Solar Lights offers warm light with beautiful lines and patterns. These solar lights are a convenient and gorgeous option with large solar panels to capture maximum light. Also, the glass and steel design looks great in the daytime. They come on automatically and offer up to 10 hours of light throughout the night. They're just over 16 inches high, creating clear illumination.

Wohome Outdoor Solar Garden Stake Lights

Best Design

Wohome Outdoor Solar Garden Stake Lights are a whimsical addition to your garden. Each stake features four lily-shaped flowers that light up in various colors for up to eight hours on a single solar charge. They're adjustable thanks to sturdy stalks and the colors won't fade due to UV exposure. However, you'll have to bring them inside during storms to prevent damaging the petals. Each pack comes with three bunches.

Otdair Solar Ground Lights

Best In-ground

These solar lights are an in-ground option, creating a path of light with a disk. They're solar-powered and won't blow over or break during a storm. Instead, they create a nice glow reminiscent of movie theater floor lighting but with plenty of illumination to make pathways comfortable. They come on automatically and you get 12 in the pack.

Garden lights, no matter how they are powered, are an excellent addition to your outdoor space. Solar-powered lights are especially easy to use, charging with the sun and illuminating your way at night. The options on our list are the most convenient ways to add some ambiance to your garden, and you’ll love watching them flicker on as the sun fades. It’s time to add some light to your favorite outdoor spaces.

3 of the best solar garden lights for a bright and eco-friendly yard
Rebecca Wolken
By Rebecca Wolken
February 26, 2022
outdoor sitting with lights

It's important to decorate your garden with stunning flowers and veggies, but it's also vital that your garden be well lit. Whether for parties, late-night harvesting, or quiet nights reading in the warm summer air, solar lights make a fantastic addition to any garden. They can transform a backyard into a cozy after-dinner area, light up a walkway for safe navigation, or bring attention to a favorite tree. Here we'll be going over the essential considerations to keep in mind while shopping for solar garden lights. We'll also include a few of our favorites you might want to add to your landscaping.

What to consider when buying a solar garden light
Not all solar garden lights are created equal; there are a few things you'll want to keep in mind.
Cost
The cost is one of the most important aspects of purchasing a new item for almost everyone. Although solar garden lights are very similar in price, it's still crucial to consider how much you're willing to spend on lights before you go looking. Having a better idea of your budget will help you find the ideal solution.
Ease of install
If you need something easy to put up for a party this weekend, you won't want to buy a setup that'll take hours to put together. Instead, finding a solar light that's easy to install will make life easier and allow you to get back to doing other things like gardening!
Lifespan
Outdoor products never last as long as their indoor cousins, so it's not surprising to find that solar garden lights have a shorter shelf life than other indoor lights. However, this doesn't mean you should have to replace your garden lights every year or bring them in during the winter. Instead, look for a light that can withstand the types of weather you often see and be sure to care for the light properly so it can last a long time.
Aesthetic
Of course, you should like the way your new lights look! If they don't suit the aesthetic of your garden, you'll likely be disappointed and tempted to go looking for other options. So be sure you're looking for a light that's going to suit the rest of your garden, or at least blend in and not take away from your garden ornaments.
MAGGIFT Solar Pathway Lights
These pathway lights by MAGGIFT are ideal for lighting the way during the darker hours of the day. Whether it's the path from the driveway to the house or the deck to the flower garden, these lights will soak up sun rays and provide you with plenty of light to see your way.

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When and how to transplant tomato plants for the best results
Rebecca Wolken
By Rebecca Wolken
February 9, 2022
baby tomato plants

There's a time in every gardener's life when they try to grow their own veggie plants from seed. This is a gratifying process, and there are many benefits to growing your own seed starts. One of those benefits is bigger and healthier plants. By growing your own baby tomato plants, you can ensure that the plants are well cared for, never given anything you don't want them to have, and transplanted in just the right way at just the right time for optimal plant health. So how do you transplant tomato plants to ensure they're happy and healthy and live to produce lots of yummy tomatoes for your home?

How do you transplant a grown tomato plant?
If you've never transplanted tomatoes before, the idea can be intimidating. You have all these tiny plants that you've cared for over the last several weeks, and now it's time to pluck them out of their nursery pots and plop them into the outside soil where they're exposed to sun, weather, and critters. Luckily, you've cared for them so well that they're healthy and robust plants that will be able to handle anything nature throws at them.
Step one: Harden the plants
Hardening the plants is a term gardeners use when talking about the process of acclimating a greenhouse-grown plant to outside conditions. Typically it refers to sunlight, but it could also refer to wind and other weather that could harm the plant. About a week before you're ready to transplant, you'll want to harden your baby tomato plants by exposing them to sunlight at increasing increments each day. For example, day one should be about 30 minutes, then 45, then 50, and so on until the day of transplanting. If you don't do this, you'll risk your plant being burnt and killed when you transplant it outside.
Step two: Don't water the plants
Before you start pulling little plants out of their pots, you mustn't water the plants a few days before transplanting. Wet soil can make the transplanting process much harder on you and the plant. Dry soil falls away easier and is less likely to break off roots as you move the plants to their new home.
Step three: Prepare the new soil
The new location for your tomato plants will need to be prepped before you get all those babies out of their homes. Whether you are planting into the ground, a raised bed, or a pot, you'll want to amend the soil to guarantee that the plant has many nutrients to soak up. It also is easier if you dampen the soil right before transplanting. Damp soil is much more manageable and more easily manipulated around the plant.
Step four: Plant deeply
As you gently pull out the baby tomato plants, you'll want to shake off the old soil to expose the roots. This will ensure the plant has access to the new soil and nutrients you're about to provide it with. 

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Good, better, best: The perfect gas grill for your outdoor kitchen
Scott Harris
By Scott Harris
December 26, 2021
best outdoor gas grill woman grilling outside

Grills these days do a lot more than cook Independence Day hot dogs. Viewed as a more flavorful and healthful alternative to some other, more conventional cooking methods, grilling is the centerpiece of many a culinary adventure, from the everyday to the downright fancy.

Does any of that sound appealing? You may be ready to make a long-term investment in a heavy-duty gas grill. A solid gas grill is easy and economical to use, stands up to wear and tear over time, is fairly simple to use and maintain, and can provide the kind of flexibility and functionality you need in an everyday cooking space.

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