How much snow do you get? As in are walkway lights likely to be buried alive a decent part of the winter. Here, they are and have to be carefully dug out. Looking around, you see very few ground based lights.

It's hard to imagine the small amount of artificial light would actually make a difference for your plants, or else periodic full moons would pose problems for plants in nature. If the leaves/branches within just one or two inches from the light itself behave differently from the rest of the plant, then I would assume the light made the difference - but if you're more than a few inches away it's something else.

I have thethatct same solar globes as you, and I have to say thati don't think it has anything to do with you living in the north. I think the product is the problem. I live in the deep South, and I am having the same issues as you are having, with mine. I have both the taller color changing crackled globes from Bed Bath and Beyond, and I have the shorter $3.00 clear glass crackled globes from Walmart as well. The two that change colors, I have been having for a few years now and they are still going strong. I've never had to change the batteries on these and I've had them the longest. That being said, the $3.00 ones that I got from Walmart, are a different story. I bought these last spring and only one out of the four that I have, lights up. I bought new rechargeable battery's and replaced the three that won't light up. It didn't make a bit of difference. The one that worked still works with its original battery in place. The other three, just will not work. I went to Home Depot yesterday and talked with a gentleman there about it. He advised me on what I should try and I did just that. The first thing he told me to try was to take out the battery in the working globe and try it in the others. I did and that failed. Then he told me to take the rechargeable battery out of the non working globes and put in a regular AA battery. I did, and it lit up (in two out of the three non working globes). Then he told me to put the new rechargeable battery's back in and put them under a direct light or lamp and let it charge for 6 to 8 hours. (I did this too, but still have yet to see them come on). Granted, I only put them back out there this morning and its a dark rainy morning at that. So I guess I will have to see if they will light up tonight or after a full day of sun. He also told me that those solar receptors whiten over time with a film, that you can take a little sandpaper and file away the white film to clear them up again. Since the solar panel receptor is inside the glass globe, I didn't find this to be the case, add they still look shiny. You can try this though. I too, have experienced the moisture problem and the spiders inside the globes. I took the final one apart, cleaned out all the sand and water in it and dried it out. Unfortunately, the red wire came out, so I am waiting for my husband to try and solder it back together again. Will let you know if any of my attempts to fix these globes, work out or not. One more thing the man told me, was that some of these solar powered landscape lightsjust don't have the capacity to last and will only recharge so many times. He said they make better ones that last longer and have a higher capacity of storing energy with better output, but they are usually more expensive. I think that you and I thought we got a bargain with those pretty crackled globes, but in the long run, is it really worth the time, hassle and wasted money on more batteries that still won't light the darn things up? I'm like you.... I don't want to give up on them, but I may just have to bite the bullet and buy some more expensive ones, hoping that I get a better product that last longer. I noticed that Home Depot carries a six pack of these crackled glass globes that you have the option of choosing white or color changing, which sell for $50 bucks. I may end up giving these a try.

Hi Everyone, I have some steps leading from my driveway to my front door that are fairly dark in the evening and I want to light up. I�ve decided that I would like to use some form of LED lighting and figured it would be best if I could hook it up to somewhere in the garden. Looking around the web I am having a hard time finding out exactly what I need to do here to make this work, it seems I will have to buy a solar LED garden light and then install it in the corner of my yard. Seems weird that I find some similar garden lights, they look the same but with different LEDs as well as various prices, I didn�t care how much it is, I want to buy a quality one at reasonable price. Yet I still can�t decide which one to buy. If you can even just confirm I have it about right above, that would be great. Thanks!