Yard
String lights over the yard: where the poles go
String lights look easy in photos because someone already solved the hard part: what holds them up. On a patio with a pergola, the answer is the pergola. On an open lawn, a pool deck or a porch with no beam, the answer is poles, and where you put them decides whether the string hangs in a clean curve or sags into people's hair.
This note works from a sketch of the yard to the last pole in the ground, using our two kinds of pole: tall ones for soil and short ones for a deck rail.
Draw the run before you buy anything
Take a sheet of paper and draw the space from above: the house wall, the deck, the lawn, the table, the path people walk. Then draw the string lights as lines between fixed points. A wall bracket on the house counts as a point, so does a tree, a fence post or the corner of a pergola. Every end of a line that does not land on one of those needs a pole.
Zigzags across a patio look generous and use a lot of string. A simple square or a single line along the edge of the deck uses far less. Count your corners and add a pole wherever a line between two corners would hang too low over a chair or a walkway.
Soil or rail: which pole goes where
| Yard poles | Deck poles | |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 12 to 15 feet | About 5 feet |
| Stands on | A five-prong fork pushed into soil | Clamps on a deck rail or fence |
| Sections | Top with claw, 5 middle sections, fork base | 4 threaded sections |
| Packs | 4, 6, 8 or 10 poles | 4 or 6 poles |
| String lights | Not included | Not included |
Over a lawn, the tall poles put the string high enough to walk under. Over a deck, the short poles clamp to the rail, so the string rides above the rail line without anything touching the boards. Many yards use both: deck poles along the rail, then yard poles carrying the same string out over the grass.
Setting the tall poles in soil
Thread the sections together on the ground, top piece first, then stand the pole on its fork and push it all the way in. In hard ground, pour about 5 gallons of water over the spot first and let it soak. The fork goes in far more easily. The buckles and screws in the box fix a pole to a fence or a deck post instead, which is often the steadiest option at a corner.
Use fewer middle sections where you want the string lower, for example over a dining table, and the full height where people walk. The claw at the top holds the string so it does not slide toward the low point in wind.
Fixing the short poles to a rail
Fix the clamps and the base bracket to the rail first, then drop the assembled pole into them and tighten the screws at the base and in the middle. Put a pole at each corner of the deck and one at each point where the string changes direction. The galvanized metal and its coating are made to stay out through the season.
Plugging in
Plan where the plug end of the string lands before the first pole goes up: it should finish near an outdoor outlet, not in the middle of the lawn. The Consumer Product Safety Commission asks you never to string together more than three sets of incandescent lights and never to overload an outlet, so follow the joining limit printed on your string lights' packaging and give them an outlet of their own.
If the house itself needs light too, our eave lights go up under the roof edge and stay there. Plan them from an outlet of their own as well.
