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Outdoor lighting can be a problem. Not only can it be expensive, but picking the right option for your garden brings its own headaches too. Then you have to think about waterproofing. It goes on.

Today though, we’re looking at why you should be using LEDs, and how you can make some cheap, yet stylish lights for your garden that won’t cost you the earth.

So why should you use LEDs? Because they’re great for large open spaces!

One thing that sets outdoor spaces apart from your average room in your house is that there aren’t any walls or a ceiling – so when you shine a light, it disperses far easier than it would indoors. Ultimately this means you’ll need a brighter light for your garden.

By logic, this will draw more power, and this is where LEDs come into play. LEDs typically use up to 90% less energy than incandescent equivalents, because of how much more efficient they are.

They only lose around 10% of their energy to heat wastage, whereas a halogen offering similar brightness will lose up to 80% to heat!

As there is less heat passing through the internals of the light too, they last much longer. Most LEDs last up to 50,000 hours – that’s 2 times longer than fluorescent lights and a staggering 20 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs.

By choosing LEDs for your outdoor lighting, you can go bigger and brighter for longer, yet still pay less on your electricity bills – what’s there to lose?

Now that we know LEDs are the way to go, let’s look at some inspired lamps for your garden.

1 - Take some old lamp shades that you no longer use, cram them full of LED Christmas lights and voila – you’ve got yourself some stylish glowing orbs to scatter around your flower beds! From The Art of Doing Stuff.

2 - Old Mason jars don’t really serve much purpose – so stick them outside, and put the LED light and solar cell from a solar stake light in it to create a timeless looking lantern style lamp. The great thing is that these can be repositioned around your garden throughout the year! From Garden Therapy.

3 - Who says you have to use Christmas lights at Christmas? Make your garden pretty by hanging them from your trees, or even wrapping them around the trunks!

4 - For the connoisseurs among us – save up your empty wine bottles, fill them with torch oil and install a wick in the bottle neck. What you’re left with is a fantastic looking wine bottle lantern! From Design Sponge.

5 - All you need to make these tin can lanterns are literally scraps – an old tin can, sand, water, a hammer and nail, paper and leaves...and that’s it! Fine Gardening has a very detailed tutorial showing you how to make them.

6 - LED strip lights are a great lighting option for the garden. Under steps, along paths or hung in the trees, LED tape can be used virtually anywhere and are really simple to install. With RGB colour LED strip lights you get a choice of colours as well.

What do you think of some of these ideas? We’d love to see some of the ways that you have illuminated your garden – send us your pictures to cs@wled.co.uk, and let us know what you think in the comments below!