Working or Not –  Fun Ideas to do with your Solar Lights

I absolutely love solar lights! Solar lights add such a soft beautiful light to landscapes. And with so many style and color choices they make the perfect accessory to your home/yard. I do not have any electrical outlets in my backyard so I try to incorporate as much solar lighting as I can. There are quite a few positives to using solar lighting – it is more cost efficient and it draws less bugs as it is not as harsh of a light to name a couple.

Let’s talk about a couple ideas for working solar lights you have. Yes, there are the standard ways to place solar lights in your yard – along walkways and in flower gardens but here are a couple slightly different ideas. There are also a couple ideas to repurpose non working solar lights too.

Hanging Baskets & Potted Plants

Add a solar light to hanging baskets or potted plants. Simply insert solar light into the center of the pot and your plants will have a beautiful glow.

Table Decorations or Floating Pool Decor

Bring beauty and light to your outdoor dining table or float in a pool or fountain. Simply remove pole and stake from solar light. No worries about wasting the pole and stakes – more ideas below to repurpose them. Adhere the light portion to a lightweight dish/bowl. You can leave it like that or decorate with flowers, beads or whatever suits your desired look. Place on your table or float in the pool. During the day while it soaks up the sun it will look beautiful. At night it will be even more beautiful with the soft glow.

You can even use these table top decorations for your indoor party or dining if you set them outside during the day to sun charge before your party.

These glow in the dark stones would look amazing surrounding the solar light in the above decoration.

Birdhouse or Flag Pole

Add a soft glow to bird houses or flags. Place or adhere to a birdhouse or the end of a flag pole. The spotlight type of solar light works great for these areas. Pull out the pole and stake portion. The opening at base of light portion fits perfectly on Shepard’s Hooks and many poles.

Tiny Table for Lawn Chairs

Create a small table to place your drink, cell phone etc. Again, I took a trip to the dollar store to get a lightweight summer themed plate. Adhere the solar light pole to the underside of the plate and the light component to the top. Place it into the ground near your chair. Now you have an inexpensive, seasonal tiny table to hold your drink while relaxing outside. You can even forego adhering the light to top if you just need something to repurpose the pole portion.

Do you have a solar light that isn’t working anymore? You have tried wiping the solar panel, changing the battery and even putting clear nail polish on it, and it still doesn’t work. Don’t throw it away just yet repurpose it with the following ideas.

Planter

Make a small planter. Remove the solar panel portion and drill a small hole in the base. Plant any type of small plant/flower and add to your landscape. This looks great in my garden and always receives many compliments from neighbors on the uniqueness.

Add height to your flower garden

Here is another idea to repurpose the pole and stake. Add height to your flower garden by adhering the pole to the bottom of a pot. Place the pot with your flowers/plant in your garden. This produces beautiful depth to your flower garden. It is raised and also allows you to add another flower/plant where there may have not been enough room to plant. I used a green pot but it also looks nice with splashes of color.

Fun Landscape Decor

This is another fun idea that adds to your landscape. Garden mushroom caps. Creating these mushroom caps can be a fun activity to do with kids or grandkids. Or just as an adult helps your creativity fly. Remove the solar panel portion of solar light. Adhere the inside of decorated bowl to base of solar light with pole and stake attached. Place into ground wherever you would like to add fun and color to your garden and landscape.

I hope any or all of these ideas to use or repurpose solar lights find their way into your yards. Enjoy!