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A beautifully landscaped garden is a treat for family and guests alike, but even more so when the escape can be carried past daylight hours and into the night. To get there requires the inclusion of landscape lighting in your garden design, a prospect once considered frustrating to implement and prohibitively expensive. The good news is that there is a convenient, easy-to-install and cost effective solution in the form of inexpensive landscape lighting kits. The bad news is that, if you don't know their limitations, you could wind up very disappointed with your results.
Inexpensive landscape lighting kits manufactured by companies like Malibu seem like a great idea. It's important that you know that there are limitations inherent in their plastic construction that put them at a disadvantage relative to their metal counterparts. Not knowing those limitations can lead to disappointment and we don't want that so this article will help you understand the good, bad and ugly (not necessarily in that order) about plastic landscape lighting kits. Just be sure to read to the end before you make your decision.
Let's get the ugly out of the way first. Plain and simple, compared to some of the amazing designer alternatives available, these lights ain't pretty. Now, ugly may be a bit excessive, but inexpensive landscape lighting kits are generally going to be made of plastic and their designs will be fairly uninspired. Not hideous, mind you, just not as sharp as you could get if you wanted to fork over considerably more money.
Inexpensive kits will almost always be made of plastic which means you'll get a dime-a-dozen design at a baker's-dozen discount. Forget about variety in the kit. Your set will include a bunch of lights that all look the same. Unless, of course, you buy a kit containing both path lights and spotlights in which case all the path lights will look the same and all the spot lights will look the same. But let's face facts here; if you want to save money, stylish independence is a fairly small sacrifice to make.
As for the bad, well you shouldn't expect a great deal of illumination out of your inexpensive plastic landscape lighting kit. The very material they're made of is the limiting factor here. Plastic has a much lower melting point than metal so that limits the wattage of the bulbs that can be used. If your hope is to bathe acres of landscape in a brilliant glow, you're going to have to bite the bullet and shell out more coin for more expensive metal lights.
Now that we have the negatives out of the way, let's go over what's good about inexpensive plastic landscape lighting kits and that means discussing cost. I've already mentioned they are cheap, but what does that really mean? Well, going back to Malibu as an example, you can get a 20 piece plastic kit from Malibu containing 16 path lights and 4 spot lights, a power pack and all the cable you'll need for about $60 USD. Compare that with a metal kit by the same company containing only 6 lights for around $120 USD and you see what I mean when I say inexpensive.
There's another hidden benefit to plastic landscape lighting kits inherent in their plastic construction and that's replacement costs. Landscape lights are prone to all kinds of potential damage from clumsy pedestrians to cumbersome lawn equipment like lawnmowers. Plowing over one of your tier lights with a lawn mower or chopping it off at the post with a weed-whacker may be inconvenient but, with a plastic kit, replacing that one light will cost you very little. Not so with a metal light you've flattened with your John Deer tractor.
Last but not least is the simple fact that, despite plastic seeming to be an inferior material, it is practically indistinguishable from metal at night and it is also surprisingly durable. Your plastic lights will weather well and will withstand wear and tear you might not have even considered. For example, my metal lights have unsightly dents and dings caused by debris cast from lawnmowers. Your plastic lights will probably survive the same abuse with barely a scratch. If not, well, just go back to the point that they're cheap to replace.
I'm glad you've read this far. Hopefully you can appreciate the pros and cons to plastic landscape lighting kits. Their strengths are clearly in the savings department. Allowing your expectations aren't overly ambitious, they really are the way to go if money is tight. Unless you intend to light up a drive way or paint sweeping swaths of light into your trees, you can get good results marking out a path and lighting some small features and plants at a fraction of the cost.
Inexpensive landscape lighting kits manufactured by companies like Malibu seem like a great idea. It's important that you know that there are limitations inherent in their plastic construction that put them at a disadvantage relative to their metal counterparts. Not knowing those limitations can lead to disappointment and we don't want that so this article will help you understand the good, bad and ugly (not necessarily in that order) about plastic landscape lighting kits. Just be sure to read to the end before you make your decision.
Let's get the ugly out of the way first. Plain and simple, compared to some of the amazing designer alternatives available, these lights ain't pretty. Now, ugly may be a bit excessive, but inexpensive landscape lighting kits are generally going to be made of plastic and their designs will be fairly uninspired. Not hideous, mind you, just not as sharp as you could get if you wanted to fork over considerably more money.
Inexpensive kits will almost always be made of plastic which means you'll get a dime-a-dozen design at a baker's-dozen discount. Forget about variety in the kit. Your set will include a bunch of lights that all look the same. Unless, of course, you buy a kit containing both path lights and spotlights in which case all the path lights will look the same and all the spot lights will look the same. But let's face facts here; if you want to save money, stylish independence is a fairly small sacrifice to make.
As for the bad, well you shouldn't expect a great deal of illumination out of your inexpensive plastic landscape lighting kit. The very material they're made of is the limiting factor here. Plastic has a much lower melting point than metal so that limits the wattage of the bulbs that can be used. If your hope is to bathe acres of landscape in a brilliant glow, you're going to have to bite the bullet and shell out more coin for more expensive metal lights.
Now that we have the negatives out of the way, let's go over what's good about inexpensive plastic landscape lighting kits and that means discussing cost. I've already mentioned they are cheap, but what does that really mean? Well, going back to Malibu as an example, you can get a 20 piece plastic kit from Malibu containing 16 path lights and 4 spot lights, a power pack and all the cable you'll need for about $60 USD. Compare that with a metal kit by the same company containing only 6 lights for around $120 USD and you see what I mean when I say inexpensive.
There's another hidden benefit to plastic landscape lighting kits inherent in their plastic construction and that's replacement costs. Landscape lights are prone to all kinds of potential damage from clumsy pedestrians to cumbersome lawn equipment like lawnmowers. Plowing over one of your tier lights with a lawn mower or chopping it off at the post with a weed-whacker may be inconvenient but, with a plastic kit, replacing that one light will cost you very little. Not so with a metal light you've flattened with your John Deer tractor.
Last but not least is the simple fact that, despite plastic seeming to be an inferior material, it is practically indistinguishable from metal at night and it is also surprisingly durable. Your plastic lights will weather well and will withstand wear and tear you might not have even considered. For example, my metal lights have unsightly dents and dings caused by debris cast from lawnmowers. Your plastic lights will probably survive the same abuse with barely a scratch. If not, well, just go back to the point that they're cheap to replace.
I'm glad you've read this far. Hopefully you can appreciate the pros and cons to plastic landscape lighting kits. Their strengths are clearly in the savings department. Allowing your expectations aren't overly ambitious, they really are the way to go if money is tight. Unless you intend to light up a drive way or paint sweeping swaths of light into your trees, you can get good results marking out a path and lighting some small features and plants at a fraction of the cost.
About the Author:
Jean Paul is a consultant and contributor to www.lightinguplandscaping.com, a blog devoted to landscaping lights issues and products including inexpensive landscape lighting kits, creative techniques and how-to's.
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