Lighting and Heating for Your Garden Patio

LIGHTING

You will get the most use from your patio or terrace on summer evenings if you add some form of lighting. If the patio is some distance from the house but is visible from it, lighting it can bring an element of drama that you can also enjoy from the comfort of indoors at other seasons. Floodlighting can be spectacular when the ground is covered in snow.

All electrical lighting systems powered from the mains should be installed by a qualified electrician. Regulations stipulate how deep electric cables should be buried, and these should be adhered to. As with cabling for a pool, the lighting cables should be laid before the patio or terrace is built, but if this is not possible they should be buried where no digging that could damage the wires is likely to take place.

Remember that outdoor lighting should be designed to be seen only within your own garden. Your neighbours may prefer their gardens to be dark at night.

Types of Lighting

The simplest way to illuminate your patio is with candles or flares. Obviously, these are not permanent, and they must be supervised at all times. Both are best in still weather, but flares are much less likely to blow out than candles; you will need to ensure that they can be properly supported in the ground or in stable containers. Candles can be housed in lanterns and distributed around the patio or suspended from trees.

Low-voltage lighting is cheap but is best used to edge a path, since the light shed will not be particularly strong. For safety, paths should always be lit at night if the garden is going to be used then, and solar-powered lights are now available that are ideal for this purpose.

Floodlights are much more powerful, and many dramatic effects can be achieved if they are sited with care. If there is a tree overhanging the patio, it Is a charming idea to festoon it with fairy lights (coloured or not) or individual lanterns.

Underwater lamps can be used to light up a pond and will keep any fish active until well into the evening.

HEATING

Various forms of heating are available to bring a touch of warmth to those evenings when there is a chill in the air after sundown.

Perhaps the cosiest is the chiminea, a Mexican stove, which is open at the front and the top and is usually made of terracotta. These are designed as wood-burners, but you will need to substitute a non-smoking fuel if you live in a smokeless zone. They are made in a range of sizes. They need to be supervised at all times when lit and can pose a hazard if there are small children around.

Gas patio heaters are surprisingly stylish. They are usually fed by bottled gas rather than connected to the mains supply and are lit at the top, the heat being deflected downwards by a small canopy. They can look rather like municipal street lamps, but on a cool autumn evening the warmth they emit will be welcome.