Backyard Pool & Landscape Lights

Since we added a pool to our backyard 3 years ago, we definitely sit outside more than we used to at night. So I thought I’d show you a night tour of the backyard all lit up at night. It’s magical back there! We have strategically added lots of different lights in our backyard from overhead party lights to landscape lights and fireworks lights. I’ll share all of those with you too and show you what we did. It really does make a difference and we love to watch the sun go down in the backyard and all the solar lights click on when the sun dips. Come along for the tour! It really is so peaceful and calming in our backyard with all the lights on. The best time to take pics is in the hour after the sun goes down, called the Blue Hour. It’s definitely a thing so check it out. The camera lens makes the sky into the most vivid blue during this hour. Try it and see!

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From up on the deck looking down at the pool, it’s a beautiful sight to see. I started taking these night pictures back in June when the blue hydrangeas were peak. There were 2 sets of blue hydrangeas and some peaked earlier than others so you can see how they change in thee pictures. Then the White Wedding hydrangeas that are just behind the black and white umbrella here start blooming in July so those are now peak. We’ve added a lot of lights back here and after these pics were taken, we added even more. I’ll share all the lights at the bottom of the post. If you want to see the whole transformation of our backyard, see this post for how it’s changed over the 8 years we’ve been here. That post was in 2020 before we built the pool, which was the finale back here and this one is all about our pool build if you missed that.

The overhead party lights we replaced from the originals that were put up first several years ago. Those kept blowing out, so we switched to simple warm LED that came from Harbor Freight a couple of years ago and we haven’t had any problems with those.

I don’t keep all the cushions out all the time, but when the weather is nice, it sure looks good to have them out.

But when rain comes, I pile these under the big green umbrella and that keeps them mostly dry.

We are so happy with how our landscaping turned out after the pool went in. I did all the landscaping and added in Southern Living at Home plants that I was gifted a few years ago in 2019. I dug them up and then put them back out after the pool was done. Those two to the right that are blooming are Southern Living plants and are called Dear Delores hydrangeas. I asked for a lot of hydrangeas back then since they are my favorite plants and I’m happy that they all survived except one during the pool build. Now we are enjoying them all! To the left you can see 3 White Wedding hydrangeas. They look so much like limelights, but are not. I’ll show them blooming below.

I also added in hosta which is also a fave of mine. You can see the fireworks solar lights I added a couple of year ago and we just added more.

My planters that I planted back at the end of May are doing great! They are full and lush and have done so well this year, this might be my favorite combo ever. If you want to see what all is in here, here’s the post I did on my planters this year.

Here are some daytime pics of how nice the planters are looking. We have been getting plenty of rain, so I don’t even have to water them. I love these big caladiums! That middle taller plant is called Cordyline Terminalis and I’ll be looking for it again next year.

And that variety of coleus is really spilled over and gorgeous.

Back to the pool at night.

The blue hour is the perfect time to take pics like this.

These hydrangeas were still looking pretty and the ones by the gate called Big Daddy blue hydrangeas peak after the Dear Delores, so they were just starting to bloom.

Looking at the whole backyard. It’s really hard to believe how far we have come in this backyard.

Here’s a look back at when I planted those hydrangeas in 2019, not having a clue that we would be able to get a pool installed in 2022. What a difference! Below is a look at it now!

I am very happy to have so many hydrangeas in our backyard and they put on a show all summer.

Looking back at the deck, that swing bed is where I spend a lot of time during the day.

And when we have company  over, it’s nice to have this sectional sofa, which has held up amazingly well for me. I got this set 10 years ago and it is still in great shape. I can definitely recommend the AE Outdoor brand after having this sofa for 10 years.

I love filling my planters with lots of summer color.

The pool is the star of the backyard now.

Even though our backyard isn’t huge, it’s plenty big enough for us and for hosting family gatherings at our house. Over the 4th of July, all 9 grandchildren were here and in the pool. Yes, it was loud and splashy!

You can see here that the White Wedding hydrangeas are just starting to bloom.

The big blue hydrangeas that were here when we moved in were peak about this time.

I love having these to cut every year and now I’ve got even more.

All lit up!

Here we start phase 2 of adding more lights to the backyard. You can see here that I added fireworks lights to my 3 planters.

I love the addition and they look so nice at night.

With others sprinkled in the yard, they all light up the backyard.

I had added these lantern solar lights a few years ago and now they are not available anymore so I can’t share these exact ones, but I’ll share some that Mark recently added in our front yard that are pretty.

More sparkle at night!

You can see the White Wedding hydrangeas are peak now. Don’t they look like limelights?

And that’s a look a the pool and backyard at night. We sure do enjoy it!

You can see in this pic, my limelights over the fence to the left in the above pic are peak blooming now too. We had a lot of deer problems with them this year and had to take drastic measures to stop them from eating my limelights. They had always nibbled a bit on the very first plant outside the fence, but this year, they had a buffet and nibbled 3 out of 4 of the plants. This causes them to not produce blooms on the bottom part of the plant, so Mark rigged up poles and fishing line to deter them from eating, which seems to do the trick. The leaves are growing back, but it’s too late for blooms on the bottom. At least the top isn’t affected and they have huge  blooms all across the top.

One morning we looked out our bedroom window to this little guy. I’m sure his/her mom is close by, but this little one was outside the fence and looking through and all of a sudden just stepped through the fence, with an eye out on my hydrangeas and hosta. We headed downstairs to deter him and Mark went in the gate and I headed down the back stairs. He saw us coming and took off through the fence where he got in, so Mark added some fishing line there too. We had never seen that before! He’s so cute I couldn’t get mad at him!

I hope you enjoyed a look at our backyard in bloom. You can see all the landscape lights we have on these links:

• Fireworks lights, we have two types, so click here and here.  Both are nice and work well. We don’t know how long they will last, sometimes they will stop working, but so far so good.
• These are the solar landscape lights I bought, but they are currently unavailable.
• Mark bought these solar lights for the front yard and when the backyard ones go out, we will probably replace with these. They all last a few years, but maybe not forever.
• The overhead plug in party lights, Mark picked up at Harbor Freight a few years ago.

 

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