Nice!! Your bottle tree is so cool with the birdhouse on top. Great job !!!

I bet the lanterns look pretty at night. That will look good with some smaller lights mixed in on the bottle tree. I consider tealights one of the great little affordable luxuries in life. I'll go thru stages where I want them all over. As a matter af fact, I think it's comming to that season :)

I LOVE your bottle tree! GREAT combination of the blue bottles and orange flowers and the different textures of leaves, I really like that little area. Don't you just love nasturtiums. They've got to be one of my favorite plants.

What a unique birdhouse! Do you have any closeups of that?

That's a great idea for the lanterns! And I love your birdhouse on your bottle tree! VERY colorful!!

Very nice. I like lights in the garden. TFS.

Great idea and love your bottle tree!!!

the jar lights are a great idea and, i agree, your birdhouse is fabulous. love the nasturtiums; mine got buggy so the leaves don't look very nice but they are still blooming.

I hate to be the one to put a damper on this idea, and I am very sorry if I do that... but I live in a fire-prone area and, Thank God, lived through the Black Saturday bushfire and this idea scares the wits outta me. Especially in that last pic where it looks like a 'fire spirit' has its arms raised threateningly. Those are pines behind you, aren't they? Combustion city!

The price of solar lights has really come down. Here in Australia we can get a two-pack for $7 so I'm sure you can find them for cheaper where you are cuz everything is more expensive here. If you figure the cost of constantly buying tealights compared to the one-off expense of the solar light - a light that will stay lit all night - then I'm sure you'll see the advantage. The tea lights are really a false economy.

I'm truely sorry if the tone of this sounds nasty - please don't read it that way. I'm very concerned. It's burn-off season here now, and although it is an absolutely essential part of the to-do list in this area, when I smell the smoke my body tenses and I get nervous all over again.

Please try to find solar lights. You will be very happy if you do.

Your nasturtian bed is GORGEOUS!! The birdhouse bottle tree top really sets the vignette off. I love the colors on it. As for nasturtiums - I have never had any success with them. I seem to be really bad with the plants everyone says are easy. I kill daylilies, too.

Wow! That is just beautiful..I would never want to come inside! Everything is so pretty. Greatness.
Radd

I can understand cait's trepidation. I am always freaky around candles. I have to be watching them all the time. I have seen glass candleholders explode and untended candles quickly start fires. I like the battery operated tealights myself or the solar lights, which have improved greatly.

I love how you have the lights spread throughout the garden like lightning bugs and I love your bottle tree ... it is gorgeous! How are the mosquitoes in your neck of the woods? Without them, your garden would be the perfect place to spend a summer evening!

I understand the fire danger issue as well. Here in Texas we are in the midst of a drought and grass fires are frequently in the news. The idea is great, though! Check out the solar lighting department at Lowes ~ they have smaller lights that would work without the danger of fire.

Also, you can purchase battery operated tea lights online or at the gardening centers like Lowes, etc. There are some that have timers on them you can set. I found those at Big Lots when they had their Christmas stuff out! They come in steady flame or flickering flame options. Google "battery operated tea lights" and see if they will work. I've included a link below to one of the search results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Save on Crafts - tealights

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I don't think I have any good closeup shots of the birdhouse but I wish I'd taken some when it was new. It has a copper roof which was bright and shiney back then, and was a stained wood. Weather hasn't been kind to it though and a year ago I gave it a sloppy multi-colored paint job to brighten it up. It was home to many broods of bluebirds and tree swallows over the years (until the English house sparrows invaded. :-( Now it is boarded up and decorative only.)

This has really been the year for nasturtiums it seems! I see them everywhere. Conditions must be just right for them this year. I call the birdhouse garden my orange garden. I joke that it is a racist garden - orange only. Each year I plant various flowers of pink and red and purple and the orange marigolds take over and crowd out and suffocate the flowers of other colors. So I've given up and plant only orange flowers out there now, since that is all that flourishes. They have their gated little community. No point in giving these bigotted plants pink or purple pot mates to abuse! Anyways they coexist well with my orange daylilies and they welcomed the orange nasturtiums!

While I do appreciate the concerns about fire, there is a vast difference between arid Texas and Australia and rain soaked New England. This has been the rainiest summer in recorded history! I don't think there has been a forest fire here in decades, and those I remember in the dim past were quickly contained. Fenceposts sprout here, and we have so much rain that even with short growing seasons we have two cuttings of lush green hay each year.

The "fire spirit" is interior house lighting reflected in the window glass that I shot the photo through. The perspective doesn't show it well, but the pine trees are probably 50 yards up the hill from my gardens. They are so moisture laden that branches cut from them smother the fire in our barbeque pit.

I didn't show a closeup, but the candle holders in the back gardens are constructed of metal with glass windows and metal roofs. They are roomy so that there is quite a bit of air space between candle and windows. The lanterns are suspended from sturdy cast iron hooks. There is virtually no way that fire can escape these lanterns. The mason jar has a metal jar lid that the candle sits on (which creates an air space that prevents the glass bottom of the jar from heating.) I wouldn't use any tealights during a drought (if we ever experience a drought again!) or during high winds (although high winds here usually bring drenching rains.)

If our neighbors' (and I use the term "neighbors" loosely!)fireworks landing in our pasture and woods haven't set fire to anything, it is unlikely that fire is in our future. But that's another story!

If I lived in California instead of Vermont, I would probably hesitate to strike a match even inside the house and most definitely would give up the pleasures of roasting hotdogs on an outdoor fire surrounded by lanterns with real candles within. I am always in awe of how quickly a fire can spread in dry geographical areas with high winds when I see news coverage of wild fires/bush fires in our western states and in Australia. Fire seems an ever present threat there.

When I checked into buying solar products I was shocked to hear that there is a battery that has to be replaced and it is not cheap. The ones that do not have a visible battery door will eventually burn out and are disposable.

If there are no children running around with the jars I can not see any problem with a responsible adult having candle light outside. I have candle jars in my trees and have enjoyed them for several years. The daytime sun ruins the wax candle tea light but they are fine at night.

There will always be campfires and tikki torches. Candle jars are much safer than either one of these.

Not every smoker in the world throws cigarettes into the forest. I think a responsible adult will know how to care for a tea lite candle jar. Especially a person with common sense who owns land in the country. Most farmers are expert in controlled brush fires etc.

Yes there are some careless people in the world but that should not cause everyone to feel like they are incapable of enjoying the gift of fire light and heat.

Spedigrees- Your candle jars are charming!!!

I love all the colors! Your bottle tree is great with the birdhouse on top!

I love the poor man's lanterns, I have several, but to my surprise, my favorite lanterns are old minow buckets. I put in those citronella candles inside and they make the best lanterns.