How to make your own solar garden lights

Keeping your home safe and secure is important, particularly at night. One top tip security experts recommend is to ensure that the perimeter of your home is well lit when it is dark outside. With rising electricity costs and frequent load shedding in South Africa, it may not be viable to always have all corners of the exterior of your home lit at night. One solution to tackle this issue is to place solar lights in your garden — they can serve as exterior decor, they’re easy to make and don’t cost a cent seeing that they run on solar energy.

Here are 5 types of DIY solar garden lights that you can make on a budget:

1. DIY glowing orbs

DIY glowing orbs are luminous round balls that not only look aesthetically pleasing in your garden at night, but also provide an inexpensive source of light when it’s needed.

How to make DIY glowing orbs:

• Materials needed: glass shades and solar fairy lights

• Instructions:

  1. Place the solar fairy lights in the glass shades
  2. Put your DIY glowing orbs in your area of choice, preferably in an area that gets a lot of sun, in your garden

It’s really that simple! You can buy solar fairy lights at a mall or online. For an in-depth tutorial, click here.

2. Lamp made from twigs

A twig lamp is exactly as the name describes. Twigs are in abundance in your garden, so it’ll be quite easy to gather the materials needed for this solar garden light.

How to make a twig garden lamp:

• Materials needed: Twigs, a balloon or inflatable ball, and glue

• Instructions:

  1. Use a blown up balloon or inflattable ball as the stencil for your twig lamp
  2. Cover your balloon or ball with polyethylene and stick all your twigs around the balloon or ball using a glue gun or craft glue
  3. Leave a space at the bottom of the balloon or ball where you’ll insert your solar light
  4. Once dry, carefully pop and remove the balloon or ball along with the polythylene

For a full tutorial, click here.

3. Fairy lanterns

Fairy lanterns are a great way to illuminate your garden at night. The materials needed to make this type of solar garden light are affordable, with LED solar fairy lights retailing from R100 and upwards at various online and brick and mortar stores.

How to make a fairy lantern:

• Materials needed: LED solar fairy lights and a mason jar (you can use an empty glass jar from your kitchen)

• Instructions:

  1. Get an empty jar and make sure it’s clean and dry
  2. Add LED solar fairy lights into your jar

You can hang your fairy lantern on your mailbox, or make a couple and line them up across your patio. It’ll be quite the sight to see at night! To make them look even more bright and beautiful, you can use colourful jars and also stick pictures or ornaments of fairies on the inside. They’ll look whimsical, especially if you have garden gnomes.

For a full tutorial, click here.

4. Disk LED solar lights

Disk LED solar lights are flat lights that can be used to light up your garden at night. You can use them in walkways, stick them on your fence or gate, and even on trees to make the exterior of your home bright at night.

How to use disk LED solar lights:

• Materials needed: All you need are the solar disk lights

• Instructions: Mount the solar disk lights in an area of your choice

The best part about disk LED solar lights is that they’re easy to install, cost-effective, wind-proof and waterproof. You’ll certainly be getting value for money!

5. Solar string lights

Solar string lights will make your garden look as though it’s covered with bright stars at night. You can add them to your patio or outdoor entertainment area for ambiance. They provide a classic look to an area and your guests will appreciate the aesthetic (and the lighting!)

How to install solar string lights:

• Materials needed: Solar string lights, a tape measure, metal hooks and eyes, a drill, a ladder, pencil/painters tape

• Instructions: Learn how to install string lights here.

6. Ground stake solar lights

Ground stakes are garden lights that can be poked into the ground. They’re perfect for lighting up a pathway in your garden and for bringing light to a dark corner in your yard. If you also want to highlight certain plants at night, ground stakes are perfect for doing so. They also come in a variety of colours so you can choose different colours to make your garden colourful at night.

How to install ground stake solar lights:

• Materials needed: Just the ground stake lights

• Instructions: Simply poke the lights in your desired area in your garden

And viola! Now you have a bright and beautiful garden!

Consider adding the above 6 solar garden lights to illuminate your yard at night. They’re affordable, easy to make and install, and they’ll save you from spending too much money on electricity while making your home’s exterior look wonderful at night.