Last summer we picked up several strands of cafe lights on our trip to Portland with the plans to put them up in the back yard around the fire pit, but we got busy with other projects and didn’t get them up.  Luckily, we’re playing catch up this summer and crossing off all the projects from last year that didn’t get finished.  Which means we had most of the materials already on hand to get this one done.

It started with creating the posts the lights would hang from.  We used two small metal stock tanks we got from Wilco on our big trip last summer as the base.  We added two bags of sand from the sand bags we use in the bed of the truck for weight during the winter to create a base at the bottom of the tank and provide a bit of drainage.

From there we used concrete footer blocks that had a metal attachment for a pole.  We picked those up on the buy/sell page last summer as well.  We decided to use pressure treated 4×4’s to coordinate with the fence around the yard.  Since the ground slopes away from the house for drainage we knew the tanks wouldn’t sit perfectly level, so we leveled the posts with a handy tool the Hubs had and used long deck screws to secure them in place.

Then the Hubs added a couple of supports around the posts using scrap wood.  These help prevent any sway during the wind or pull from the tension on the light strands.  He kept them a little low in the tank so I’d still have room to plant around the posts.

I spent weeks filling both tanks with plastic bottles and jugs to reduce the amount of dirt needed to fill them.  Luckily I know a coffee shop that was willing to save their large milk jugs each day to speed up the process a bit!  Once I had them topped off with dirt I planted cosmos and dill, which should fill in and grow tall next to the pole for the rest of the summer.  Next year I may try cat mint to see if it survives the winter in the metal tank since both cats enjoy this new vantage point and can often be found sitting in the tanks next to the flowers.

The Hubs strung the lights using small hooks at the top of the posts and securing the ends of the cords to the house with a bracket and zip tie.  The nearest electrical outlet is over on the new deck so he got a tan colored extension cord and used small flexible loops to hang it along the eve of the house so it could run the distance to the deck and then down to the outlet.

Since our days are so long during the summer we haven’t gotten much use out of them just yet, but now that summer solstice has past the days are slowly getting shorter.  I plan to enjoy them through the fall until winter threatens the first snow.

The next step is to add a low profile border of some sort between the gravel and the grass.  Then we’ll add more pea gravel to fill in the area.  We also used a strand of these same lights in the gazebo we put over the hot tub on the new deck.  I’m still getting that all set up and will share that project when I have finished pictures for you!