Anyone who knows me well knows that there is no place I would rather be at the end of a long day than out in my garden enjoying a cup of tea. In the cool fall and spring months, I prefer a cup of hot peppermint tea in my garden, and in the heat of summer I apt for a cup of iced lemon tea. There is something magical about being in my backyard garden that I just cannot get enough of. I have read more books, journaled more pages, and shared more great conversations with my family in our garden than almost anywhere else. The atmosphere of my garden was recently made even more magical when we strung garden lighting throughout the entire thing.

I have no idea why I hadn't thought of using great garden lighting before, but I was definitely open to the idea when my artistically driven teenage daughter suggested it as we sat on our back porch one night with tea cups. She thought that garden lighting might do something special for the mood of the garden and that it might make us want to spend even more time there.

Before I knew it we had sat our tea cups down and were headed to a local gardening store to see what kinds of garden lighting we could find. We were amazed when we took time to look through the store at how many garden lighting options we had. We choose a few strings of tiny Chinese laterns that we in bright teal and olive colors. We both loved them and knew that they would be the perfect garden lighting for our needs.

We rushed home and decided not to wait until morning to put the garden lighting up. Instead, we went immediately to our backyard garden and began stringing the lights from tree to tree to tree. After checking to see that all of the bulbs worked, we decided not to let ourselves turn the garden lighting on until we had it all up and hanging in place. I'm so glad we waited because when we finally turned on our new garden lighting it was amazing. The small and colorful Chinese laterns did a lot for the look and feel of our garden. The garden lighting only made it more inviting than it was before.

We gathered the rest of our family and brought them outside to see our work. They enjoyed the garden lighting as much as we did and within minutes we were making popcorn and had plans to enjoy the backyard garden together that evening. I love the way my garden lighting looks, but even more than that I love the way our garden has become a gathering place for the people I love most.