In the night garden...

The garden at night can be a dark place. Even my tiny space is as black as ink on a cloudy night. Of course the light nights are coming and with luck it will warm up a little.

I'm looking forward to the lighter, warmer nights so that I can sit outside with a glass of wine or two.

Even so, it's nice to have a little light around the garden and a few cheap solar lights can make a real difference. Of course it's all down to how you use them. I lift them up on canes and vary the levels, but I also do other things with my eighty-nine pence lights.

Simply placing a solar light (minus shaft) inside a jar with some gravel in the bottom can make quite a difference. I sealed my light to the jar with blu-tac.

I've even taken the bottoms off bottles (here's how simple that is) to make a interesting hanging lantern with a wine bottle, a solar light, and an old piece of chain.

Placing several, cut at varying lengths, together in an old painted wooden lemon crate also works well, creating a focal point in a gloomy corner..

For under thirty quid my garden is full of mood and interest caused by the thirty or so solar lights I bought from Wilkinson's. They may only last a season, but the power and light is free, it looks great, and when the warmer evenings do come I can sit out in my backyard and watch the shadows caused by my lights until the early hours - with a glass of wine in hand of course!