Thanks to outdoor heaters and firepits, you can now enjoy your outdoors even in the colder months.
The only question is how appealing is your outdoor patio in the darker, colder times of the year? Furthermore, how safe is it? Have you tried navigating steps in the dark while juggling trays of refreshments? Or have you put your drink on the deck beside your feet only to have someone knock it over because they couldn’t see it? And who wants to sit in gloom in the first place, heater or no heater? The solution is to add a little landscape lighting.
Landscape lighting is used to enhance the aesthetics of gardens and landscapes as well as to provide security and safety for night time navigation.
With carefully placed lights you can also highlight interesting focal points in your garden that otherwise would not be seen in the dark. This may be your favourite tree or garden bed or even a special garden sculpture.
When you’re entertaining, if you don’t have the traditional string party lights or fairy lights, you may be relying on floodlights or regular patio lighting, which is okay from a safety perspective, but not very cosy or visually appealing and does little to illuminate at ground level.
Deck Lighting Ideas
For outdoor lighting, you can choose between solar or electric powered pole lights, small pathway lanterns, fixed post lamps and wall lanterns, hurricane or camping lanterns, outdoor fireplaces, chimineas, candles, firepits or tiki torches. And now, thanks to deck lights, you can enhance every area of your patio, steps and pathways, including those edges of your deck that traditionally remain in the dark and hidden when the sun goes down.
Subtle lighting supplied by deck lights also means you have illumination when and where you want it without the bug-attracting, eye-blinding light from traditional floodlights.
If you want to switch between brighter lighting or softer lighting, choose a system with an optional dimmer switch.
For example, Siros LED Deck lights not only offer easy installation with their Plug and Play system, but it comes with optional extras such as the LED Dimmer and Remote Control.
You can go bright when your guests are mingling and eating, then dim down for those more intimate occasions.
And with low voltage systems, such as the Siros LED deck light system, you can save on electricity as well as enjoying maximum protection against the risk of electric shock.
In addition to choosing locations for your landscape lighting to achieve the best effect visually as well as for safety or security purposes, other considerations include whether you want to connect to a solar system, mains power, use timers or motion sensors, or operate the system remotely via your phone.
Fortunately, there are many options for all tastes and budgets when it comes to landscape lighting and you are guaranteed to find something to suit your circumstances.
For the best advice on decking materials, landscape design tips and products to enhance your composite timber decking, contact the team at New Tech Wood.
Our parent company Urban Direct Wholesale supplies the Atlantis brand of water management products. Atlantis is the leading international provider of water management and greening city solutions. Their mission is to create sustainable urban designs turning major environmental problems into assets.
In Australia, with our hot climate and water conservation, the continuing trend towards succulents makes good sense.
Once the catchcry of nature loving ‘hippies’, GO GREEN has become a global movement and going green has become serious business. In the building industry, regardless of whether it’s a brand new home or renovating an old weatherboard, today’s environmentally aware home-owner wants eco-friendly and value for money.
Companies like 
According to Australian health and safety statistics, this is the time of year when the number of accidents around the home also increases – attributed to Do-it-Yourself enthusiasts.
3. Hammering. Speaking of nails, you can avoid the risk of hammering your fingers by using a small blob of BluTack to hold small nails in place while you hammer them in. You can recycle the Blu-Tack, but not your fingers!
Use eye goggles to protect your eyes from metal and sawdust when sawing and grinding. Use a face mask to avoid inhaling dangerous substances and dust particles, especially if you’re under your house or in the roof space where you can encounter toxic chemicals from pesticide use, asbestos, mould spores, rat droppings, etc.
And speaking of safety, NewTechWood composite decking comes with a valuable BAL29 Fire Rating and a Rll slip rating; AND you’ll never have to worry about splinters. Also with its hidden fastener system, you will never have to worry about rusty or protruding nails, and with the option of the mini clip system, catching a stiletto heel in the decking gap is also a thing of the past.
There is a solution to this problem, and it’s called composite. 
these problems is 
Rooftop gardens also lower both the surface and surrounding air temperatures through a process called evapotranspiration. This process reduces ‘heat islands’ in city communities responsible for increasing power demands and which also contributes to air pollution and greenhouse gases. In fact, rooftop gardens are proven to absorb heat and insulate buildings better than traditional roofing.
Another benefit to rooftop ‘farming’ is the plants do not suffer from pest attacks like their ground-dwelling counterparts. Snails and slugs are too lazy to slime their way up skyscrapers!
Garden Art. Decorative screens can also be purely ornamental and support special garden themes. Think of the visual impact the new decorative screens make when used as art on fencing or exterior walls. Think of tropical plants and bamboo reed screens with water features for that touch of Bali. Think of white trellis screening, the perfect touch for a lovely English garden with archways and climbing scented roses. Or maybe you like something more avant-garde.
Overhead Shelter. Sometimes, you don’t want a completely covered patio. Sometimes you want to let some sunshine through but maintain some protection. At the cheaper end of the scale is traditional shade cloth, but for a more stylish solution, try screening boards. If you don’t like the idea of regular maintenance, try a composite product, like 
front gate to the front door? Or to reach the garage? Or is its function purely decorative…perhaps to meander lazily through a colourful maze of hollyhocks, larkspur and lavender in your showpiece garden?
Will your path be crossing carefully tended grass, lumpy moist-retaining surfaces, or just plain sand? Will it need to be stable in very wet weather? Will it be raised, or involve steps? Is the area level, uneven, rocky or sloped? Not all path materials are suitable for all terrains. Think of mud slides on sloping areas, and soft ground issues, for example. While smooth slabs of rock and polished pebbles add rustic appeal to a garden, in the wet they can become slippery and unstable surfaces, and not everyone appreciates the moss that is attracted to it.
The front path is one of the first things people see when they enter your property. Does your path scream dull and uninviting? Or does it welcome your visitors with the promise that a warm and thoughtful welcome awaits them?
In modern suburbs where housing lots have become smaller, yard spaces have shrunk correspondingly. Don’t let this thwart your creativity.
products, such as 
Mulch pathways look at home in natural and rustic garden settings. It’s the easiest and lightest material to work with and an obvious choice for the budget conscious. Some tree lopping services provide free mulch just so they can get rid of it. Just remember that beautiful red or black mulch you buy today will soon turn grey, and within a few years you will have to top it up as it will decompose. The beauty of a product like 
For starters, you have prime farming land sitting right on your windowsill, perfect for your own herb ‘garden’. The beauty of this is when it is raining, you don’t have to go outside to pick your chives or parsley – it’s right within hands-reach, and you know it’s good quality and bursting with flavour. In fact, if you’re a novice gardener, a window-sill herb garden is a great place to start.
ns, peas, spring onions, beets, spinach, eggplant, zucchini, kale and radishes. You can also grow strawberries. Be adventurous.
Well, thanks to products like Atlantis’ Gro-Wall Vertical Garden kits, that’s no longer a problem. Now, everyone can have their veggie patch and eat it too! With their standard Gro-Wall 4 kit and their new thinner Slim Pro kit, everyone can enjoy a garden on even the narrowest balcony.You can plant a mixture of your favourite vegetables intermingled with pots of colourful flowers and leafy green ferns, and best of all, you can pack up your vertical garden and take it with you when you move. All you need is a blank wall.