When you think of lighting your yard for winter, your mind may instantly go to garish holiday strands adorning houses or bright yard displays designed to out-do your neighbor. This winter, however, as the days grow shorter and you ponder how to landscape your yard while incorporating tasteful lighting, consider these subtle but bright ideas to light up your outdoor space.

Modern In-Path Lighting

Whether you already have a path through your yard or are considering adding one, a sure bet for lighting is inserting solar lamps between or around each stepping stone or concrete pad. These lights are designed to lay flat with your path, to eliminate tripping hazards, and have all day long to soak up sunlight so that they can brighten your yard at night. You can choose between round and square lights, or even find lights that perfectly match your stonework, if you’re creating a new walkway as part of your landscaping and lighting remodel.

Subtle Foliage Lighting

Does your landscaping design including bushes, hedges, or thicker perimeter plants? Instead of using obtrusive lights to shine at or down upon this foliage, you can place lighting inside of the plant area. Unlike path lighting, placing lights inside dense foliage probably eliminates solar as an option. You can still choose tasteful lighting, however, that sits either flush with the ground, projecting light up through the plants, or is slightly raised and angled to show off particular landscape designs. The good news about planting lights within dense foliage is that you can more easily hide the hardware of the lamps and bury related wiring.

A word of caution: if you plan to hide lights inside a densely planted area, ensure that they are cold-burning lights so that you do not expose your house to fire risk.

Conversation Piece Lighting

In contrast to the first two subtle illumination techniques, you may consider other outdoor landscape lighting ideas like above ground lights that match your outdoor decor or add a conversation piece touch to your yard. From classic black lantern designs to more modernly formed pieces, you can place these lights either at strategic points in your yard to provide even lighting coverage or use them to ring your house or line a walkway.

Tying It Together

Dark winter evenings in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, when the sun sets so early, demand adequate lighting to really show off your property. Easy does it, however, as you decide how to landscape your yard while adding more illumination. Pick and choose between lighting techniques to ensure that your yard has just enough lighting without going overboard. Moderation is the key — and your yard will shine its approval.

Image Source: Flickr/Timo Newton-Syms

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