Garden fairy lights - on trend or naff?

We've got loads in our back garden and so has our next door neighbour!. Going over the summerhouse roof, over an arch, up a tree, thro some trellis plus multi coloured solar markers around the pond!! We love them especially when we are sitting out on a warm evening with a g&t !

Avoid strings of solar lights if you have squirrels in the area. 3 sets of mine lasted less than a week as blasted squirrels chewed through the wires!

Jalima you must have a mummy owl too. At least some of the time.

My garden is full of naff, bit like my Christmas trees. Love it.

3 Buddhas - ranging from 5cm high to 25cm, one fountain, one ceramic frog, one 30cm fairy. And that's on my balcony! Just realised..... But I really would like a string of lights.....

Nelliemaggs of course, and a mouse

Yes I to have them draped along a fence and the individual ones in my containers they look really lovely at night.I think you will be pleased how nice they look. Definitely not naff.

I love them. Did have three lots but unfortunately hubby managed to run the mower over one of the wires to the one and I was mortified. I am an insomniac and when I look out of my window at night and seem them twinkling away I somehow don't feel so alone.x

This is in Buckingham palace gardens! Lifesize!

We used to have two strings of solar fairy lights, white up one side of the garden and coloured up the other side. They were trailed artistically through the shrubbery. Unfortunately I snipped through the wire of the coloured strand with the shears while pruning, so now we have the white string along the bottom fence. Also 4 pillar lights on the wall behind the pond and an illuminated foxglove in a pot by the patio. Looks lovely when I go to bed.

I am in the habit of hiding tiny gnomes in the gardens of my DC. They don't know they are there, until they clip hedges or cut back bushes etc, so it's always a surprise to find them! They keep their colours because they are hidden most of the time, well, all of the time really!

My grown children have sussed my game but only because one has found a gnome. My GC now want to know if Granny has been gnome-planting. No one knows, until they are discovered.

Quite silly, I know, but I quite like the idea of a little character (they are small) having a secret home in the garden! Son had a laugh when he found his quite recently grinning up at him from a newly cleared patch. (It was hidden away again under a bush somewhere afterwards he tells me! I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea. All my tiny garden gnomes are hidden in our garden. The man hasn't come across any of them yet!)

In France this year the pergola we sat under each evening was decorated with twinkling solar lights. It looked lovely at dusk. I may invest in some for our garden.

Lovely, gorgeous, magnificent! Naff or not, if it feels good then go for it. I'm very envious as I have no garden. Maybe I'll string fairy lights around the windows of my flat.

I too managed to prune the string of lights along with the clematis! Most of our solar lights have now expired. Is it worth buying new batteries?

Fabulous to know so many of us like a bit of light and frivolity in our gardens

Oh dear, sorry to be a misery but the UK is the worst in Europe for light pollution. It confuses and disrupts wildlife, there is info on the internet. Some areas such as Kielder forest and Dalby forest are dark sky areas for astronomy. It's almost impossible to see the Milky Way in many parts of the UK. For me, night time should be dark.

I mormally loathe them (next door have no taste and they have them!) That said, I haven't seen attractive ones till I saw the ones you put up and really like the butterfly - go with them and enjoy!

I have to admit that I think they are a bit naff but I like them and they are somewhat habit forming. I am forbidden to buy any more! The word "Blackpool" has been muttered by DH.
They don't seem to last more than a year now. I even tried replacement batteries, but that didn't work, so I now "test" with an ordinary battery and I'm afraid it's usually a different fault. We have a lot of parakeets which look beautiful but are rather partial to wire nibbling and so several strings have had to be binned and replaced.

A bit naff but I like them, go for it Shysal ? And we also have some crackle glass solar lights and a peacock ( which stands aloofly in some shrubbery) what's a bit of naffery if we like it?

My gorgeous sexy frog! He has solar powered eyes and he makes me smile every time I see him. ?

Plus I have fairy lights across the fence tops, more little lights around and at dusk it changes and becomes a magical world. Admittedly, I need to do lots of work in it to make it more attractive, but I sort of like it's random, chaotic look.

Go for it Shysal, enjoy everything magical that you can, it doesn't matter what anyone close thinks as long as you get pleasure out of it. They bring your garden to life again when the sun goes down, brilliant. X

Sluttygran Youcan get artificial flower vines from eBay so you could weave them round your fairy lights and have an indoor window garden. Plus you could get, like mine, battery fairy lights for your window, different shapes and colours. Mine are pink hearts around the window, went up for Christmas and didn't come down. Try them, it feels lovely and cute. X

I have just put a buddha head on top of my boat. It has lavender pots either side that have windmills in. Oh and I have fairy lights around the cratch cover on the bow. This is just the start of course...it will evolve...hahaha

shysal I don't have any solar lights but I am thinking of getting some, my daughter has some and they look very pretty. I do have a Robin like yours, bought mine from RSPB Titchwell. I love the Butterfly in your picture. I think I might look out for one of those.

Shysal it's your garden, you can do what you like with it.

I've some solar sticks in the second part of my garden which is fenced off from the main garden and is a sort of Secret Garden where I like to sit. It's very much a wild life area, with flowers and shrubs thar attract bees and birds and my hedgehogs. I installed them to mark out a path at night so I could see where I wa going in the dark, but they throw out a pretty pattern which radiates from each stick so are quite attractive as well as functional.

Sigh ... five days and the mother of all storms later and two out of three strings of lights have stopped working .

Love your froggy rubylady, and your Buddha, theoddbird!

Hope your solar units will dry out Imperfect.

Just ordered another string of fairy lights to go around the shed on the opposite side of the garden from the fence, so that I will have lights on both sides. I like symmetry! I will stop now!

What do you all use to attach the lights? Drawing pins, panel pins, duct tape?