Solar garden lighting is so much more than a trend.

Bring sunlight into your garden all night long

The days are getting shorter, and not everyone is happy about it.

Storytime:

Winter is my own personal favourite time of year. And I loathe summer. Maybe because I’m really bad at being hot. I overheat and get sunburnt on my 6am morning walk. (This really happened to me in December!)

However. My son is a sweet summer child.

Born just before Christmas this kid was made for the heat. He doesn’t sweat, burn or get heat exhaustion. He’s the kid who spends an entire day on the beach, and then plays a round of back yard cricket before rushing to the trampoline to jump until the moon rises. All while it’s 36 degrees outside…

This also means that he is the kid who gets physically, (I mean pale skin, tears in his eyes and slumped shoulders) SAD once the temperature drops. As much as my eyes twinkle once I feel that first crisp morning, I can’t deny that my cold wintery heart burns for my boy and his summer smiles.

This is why I went looking for a way to bring him sunny joy without the sunlight part.

Yes, yes – I could just go overboard and install a stadium’s worth of garden lighting, but I wanted to do it differently. Sustainably, child friendly.

This year, I went straight to the source.

His summer joy comes from the sun, so his winter garden play is now lighted by the sun. Solar garden lighting is an affordable, modular and scalable way to prolong the sun’s power this winter. It also poses a much lower, if not non-existent risk of electrocution should they malfunction or get run-over by the back yard cricket fieldworker overeagerly jumping to make the catch.

Why it’s worth it:

Uhm…Hello…Mzansi is world famous for our perfect, sunny days, even in winter. Yes the temperature drops, but the sun still rises every morning and even if there is cloud cover, we do not have those horribly European cloud banks blocking out any trace of solar rays. Even on a pretty overcast day, your solar lights will still be able to recharge and shine their little lights come nightfall. (The intensity may vary, but the lights will stay on.

Solar lights are cost effective

After the initial purchase, solar lights run on sunshine and birdsong, bypassing your Eskom account. (Birdsong no a requirement for optimal light creation.)

Eco Friendly:

No electricity means no fossil fuel power station powering your garden lights!

Quick to install.

Many solar lights are designed for easy installation, requiring no wiring. The ones that do have a small solar panel connected to them are easy to stake into a garden bed.

Pick your design:

Outdoor solar powered lights come in different hues, styles, intensities and designs. Whether you want multicoloured lights, string lights, pathway lighting or simply want to add a bit of twinkle to your tree branches, solar can sort this out for you.

Easy to operate and reliable:

Outdoor solar lights use advanced technology, including lithium-ion batteries and weather resistant covers, which means they last indefinitely, and as long as the sun keeps rising, your lights will keep shining.

Security even during loadshedding

Solar garden lights can still give you a measure of visibility and security, even when Eskom fails you.

After looking into solar lighting for my garden I decided to go all out for my kid’s sake. At the moment my garden looks like a fairy fever dream once the sun sets, with multi coloured twinkle lights in front of his bedroom window, every available tree branch looped with solar string lights and the pillars of my patio now light up after sunset.

Solar is lighting up my son’s life.

The kid spends hours after dark playing in the garden and his little summer-loving soul gets the fresh air he craves. When he eventually tires out, he is ready for the bath-book-bed routine with pink toes and flushed cheeks the sparkle if the saved up sunlight still in his bright eyes.

Top Tip to parents:

Did you know that being cold and experiencing even very cold temperatures does NOT make you sick? The same goes for being barefoot…So please stop lying to your kids.

“According to Dr Ray Casciari, a pulmonologist at St. Joseph Hospital in California, changing weather can make you sick, but it has less to do with the actual temperature change, and more to do with environmental effects associated with those changes. Research shows that, despite what your mom has told you, simply existing in cold weather isn’t, itself, likely to make you get sick.” The Atlantic

Artificial heat is worse than natural cold.

In fact – dry air caused by the overuse of heaters and air-conditioning is much more likely to make you susceptible to catching a virus that’s floating around, than being cold. The same goes for crowding people into artificially warmed spaces. Viruses thrive in dry air and the more breaths we recycle in a closed space, the bigger the risk of them spreading.

Remember, there is no such thing as bad weather. There is only inadequate planning and improper clothing.

If you must, put a jacket on your kid, but please don’t just deny them outdoor play simply because its winter. Sprinkle some solar joy through your garden and enjoy the science that allows us to capture sunlight to light our nights. Isn’t the human mind amazing?

We have scoured the internet for many different options when it comes to solar lighting.

• Builders Warehouse has great floodlights and wall mounted lights
• Checkers have varying lengths of solar string lights, and many decorative light options.
• Takealot has the best novelty lights that come in any shape from letters to butterflies or a thing that looks like a sprouting rainbow tree. My kid loves the watering can light as well as the one with the giant fake owl…

Apparently, there’s no accounting for style when you are 7 years old.