Over the years I have bought many different sets of lights for my garden. When the children were younger lights were sometimes damaged with their games. Nowadays, this type of equipment tends to last longer.

As I don't have a source of power in the back garden yet, I choose to buy solar lighting. Mainly I buy lights for the garden from shops such as, Pound stretcher. I have also bought some from a market and others from various shops. However, I bought these lights from my Grattan catalogue. As I had spent a lot of money on the home around that time I wanted to make some further purchases where I could spread the cost. I also had acquired some cash back. Admittedly I don't buy many thiongs from any catalogues, believing them to be too expensive. Sometimes though one can find something in a catalogue that may be hard to find, or it is a costly purchase where you might prefer to pay for it over several weeks or months, or it just works out easier to have it delivered to your door.

I was looking for some extra garden lights earlier in the year, and decided to purchase these from my Grattan catalogue. These lights looked good, judging by the picture on the website and they were on a 'buy one get one free' offer. I wouldn't have bothered other wise. Of course, also when buying from a catalogue it is easy to return items if they don't suit, or are faulty. I knew all I had to do, if I wasn't pleased, was to re pack them and make a phone call to the catalogue, or my courirer. Luckily there was no need and I was pleased with these lights.

I ordered the lights by telephone, although orders can be made by internet or post, and they arrived in about four or five days. I could have requested next day delivery on this item, but would have been charged for this. I wasn't in a great hurry, so chose the standard free delivery by courier.

On opening, I thought they looked slightly better than similar lights that I had bought from the market, although they were more expensive so they should have been. I thought they looked good, quite stylish in fact.

I would say they are a modern design, with a stainless steel design top, upon which the solar panel is placed.

I particularly wanted these lights to place in darker areas of the garden. I have some prettier, more old fashioned looking lantern lights which have pride of place, but I thought these could be positioned around shrubs to cast light, and help with the overall effect and, of course, securiy.

So I became foreman and my husband the labourer. He placed the lights, strategically around the garden, he thought, and I corrected! After changing my mind a few times we got there, and I think that they blend in okay with the lighting which was already in place. The extra lights complement the overall effect.

I don't hink that eight lights alone would be enough for even a small garden, and mine isn't large. These would work well in a tiny yard or courtyard type garden. Perhaps a verandah or, as with my garden, alongside other lights.

I must say that I don't find solar light,s when lighting a garden, perform as well as orthodox mains lights, but I still like the idea of them. They are environmentally friendly and pretty much effortless. Of course, a sunny day will give a longer length of time that the lights work for. Also the positioning of the lights has an effect on the amount of sunlight they attract on the panel during the day. I'm not sure exactly how long these stay lighted for as I have many different lights in various positions, but they seem to work fora few hours. providing light from dusk until the early hours of the morning. This is in the summer. In winter they would not work so well.

I am pleased with the amount of gentle light that these emit. They certainly make my garden more welcoming of an evening. Also, they help me to spy on the dog, and his see whereabouts in the garden. There's no hiding place in my garden for naughty westies!

Overall I would say that I am pleased with these solar lights but don't think they are n especially great bargain. From my point of view they seemed worthwhile to buy from the catalogue, with the buy one get one free offer plus the ten per cent cash back. When a payment is made on ones account,t ten percent is given back. This can be put into your account or sent as a cheque, or used towards a payment. I like the lights but feel they are of only slightly better quality than others I have bought at a cheaper price.


These lights were priced at £25.00Or 20 weeks @ £1.25. They came as a
Buy 4 get 4 free (two packs).

For further details on these solar lights or ordering other items from the Grattan catalogue, please see www.grattan.co.uk