Effective Lighting Solutions for your Backyard

Having a beautifully landscaped backyard is one thing, but equally important is having your space effectively lit. While backyards provide several benefits, such as engendering family gatherings, providing entertainment for you and your loved ones, or simply being your space of escape and more; a backyard lighting system will paint the finishing details to your landscape. Just like how landscaping contributes to the aesthetic and value to your home, lighting can enhance and highlight desired features while creating that perfect ambiance for your guests. Keep reading for benefits and tips on how you can enjoy your backyard night or day with key lighting concepts and more.

Various Backyard Lighting Benefits

Aesthetics: Well positioned backyard lighting can enhance any landscape. A backyard lighting system helps magnify the different textures, while complimenting varying features and shapes of your structures, shrubs and trees. The addition of lighting will expand beautify the spatial views. By varying lighting hues and intensity you can establish mood and ambience for an evening of entertaining, parties, romance, etc.



Safety: Another primary function of backyard lighting is to illuminate possible hazard areas. These may include steps, low branches, water features, barriers, abrupt changes in path directions, elevation changes, and more.



Security: Your backyard surrounds your home. Typically, people have many valuable items in their yards, for example fancy statues and figurines, elegant water fountains, bamboo tiki bar stocked with pricey liquor and stem-ware, expensive pool toys, and etc. Backyard lighting can protect your valuables from unanticipated accidents or potential intruders. A well lit home and garden can help deter crime, while providing a clearer view at night on who is coming and going from your property.

Usability: The outside landscape is an extension of the inside of your home. Having a well lit area allows you enjoy that space regardless of whether it is day or night.

Entertainment: You can continue to enjoy gatherings in your backyard as dusk rolls in, instead of everyone packing up and heading inside at the first sign of nighttime. Everyone can relax outside in your beautifully landscaped backyard and enjoy themselves under the star-lit sky. Imagine sitting around your bamboo tiki-bar with a colorful array of stringed lights cascading along the roof and counter-top. In addition to that, little lights that gently illuminate along your patio and walkway so guests can see where they are going as they journey and marvel through your landscape. What an extraordinary and gratifying ambiance! Everyone will love getting together in your backyard.



Backyard Lighting Tips

Uncomplicated Systems: When it comes time for you to select your backyard lighting system, you should be careful to select lighting fixtures that are easy to install. You don’t want systems that have complicated electrical cables and connections as you want to compliment your landscape and not have to reinvent everything to do so.

Automated Timers: A good idea is to choose an outdoor lighting system that has an automated timer integrated into them. This way the timers regulate the duration and periods that the lights will be on and off, which makes it easier and convenient. You can even get solar powered lighting systems, which will absorb energy from the sun during the day so that they illuminate at night for your safety and enjoyment. This will also save you money on utilities.

Plan Your System: Be sure to plan out your backyard lighting system. There are so many systems to choose from and unique fixtures you can add to your décor, you should make a plan for your backyard lighting so you don’t overspend or get fixtures that don’t fit well with your decorating scheme.

Some Questions to Ask Yourself: How much do you want to spend on your backyard lighting system? How much backyard space do you have? How much brightness do you want? Do you have any specific features, such as a water fountain or sculpture, you want to enhance? Do you have any paths or areas where people will need to be able to see where they are walking? How will you install your lights? Do you want to hang stringed lights, for example around your patio covering or bamboo tiki bar, or do you want stand alone lights, for example light posts and spot lights?

Cool Landscaping Design Tips and Ideas

Creating a tropical landscape is a rewarding and creative task, but finding and purchasing your ideal landscaping products and tropical décor is only half the battle of creating the ultimate tropical paradise in your home and yard. The other half is the actual work involved in landscaping. There are so many different landscaping ideas and methods you can use with colorful plants, bamboo fencing, a tiki bar, umbrella thatches, tiki statues, and all other bamboo and tropical-themed products. Keep reading to learn more about some cool landscaping tips and ideas for your home and yard that will help you in your planning.

Benefits of Landscaping

In addition to being beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, landscaping your home and yard adds enjoyment and value to your home. Landscaping has proven to be one of the top ways to add monetary value to one’s home. Additionally, depending on the particular landscaping project and the amount of continued maintenance and upkeep, landscaping can even appreciate over time.

Landscaping Tips and Ideas

Plan before you Buy. This may sound tricky, but it’s an important step when landscaping. Simply sketch your ideal landscape design on paper before you start buying, planting, and building your new yard. This will enable you to make smart purchases by knowing exactly what materials you need and where you’re going to put them. Planning your landscaping project can save you time, money, and unnecessary frustration.



Build Boundaries. Walls and fences are generally a necessity for every home and yard. But, you don’t want boring old fencing or concrete cinderblocks as your barriers. Instead, you can create a beautiful landscape and tropical paradise through the use of bamboo poles and bamboo fencing. Additionally, you can use various plants, shrubs, and trees for barriers.

Add Waterworks. Not only does a beautiful water feature add a pleasant ambiance with the sound of trickling water, but water features are also extremely pleasing to the eye, can add value to your home, and are elegant. You can add a beautiful waterfall, fountain feature, or small pond to your tropical décor. If you opt for a pond, you can even buy colorful fish to enhance your water feature. Just be sure to maintain whichever water feature you add to your landscape.

Color is your Friend.



Adding color to your landscape will do wonders. And, it’s surprisingly very inexpensive. In fact, for as little as $1.00 a plant, you can blanket your yard with petunias, daisies, and other small annuals that will flower throughout the growing season. Color is a highly defining characteristic in tropical landscapes. Attractive colors will surely enhance the tropical theme in your home and yard.

Foliage is Fun. Interesting, eye-catching, and distinctive foliage can add variety and appeal to your yard. You can replace plants that don’t flower, replace flowers that are difficult to maintain, or simply add foliage to your current landscape. Examples of fun foliage include:



Flowering Crabapple Trees



Cutleaf Japanese Maples

Keep your Grass Nourished. Healthy, green, lush grass is always an easy and popular idea for any landscape. To reach optimum nourishment, you can implement regular fertilizer treatments and maintain a watering schedule. You can also keep that unwanted crab grass and those nagging weeds out of your lawn by adding a weed killer to your fertilizer treatment.

Bamboo and Tikis Tropical Décor

At Bamboo and Tikis, we have an extensive selection of top-quality landscaping products and tropical décor. Whether you are looking for bamboo fencing to create an aesthetically pleasing wall around your yard, a unique tiki bar for fun and entertainment, or other tropical landscaping products, Bamboo and Tikis has the products for you. So, get started on adding value and beauty to your yard by turning it into the ultimate tropical paradise. Browse our web site or come on in to our grand showroom in San Diego which offers 65,000 square feet of bamboo and tropical products galore.

Transformations from the Outside In

“Home, the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest” ~ Robert Montgomery

Throughout our daily bustles, fighting traffic, hours at work, and running errands, coming home is like dropping the heavy baggage and falling into a comforting place of reprieve. Many times, in efforts of revamping the home, people forget about landscaping and think mainly towards renovations or adding a pool. Although it may appear that landscaping only serves an aesthetic purpose, one can get so much more value from planning and cultivating a land area that includes real estate equity, monetary gain and personal benefits as well.



Whenever enhancing a home, the initial thoughts generally gear towards renovating, either a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, patio, or adding a pool. Working from the inside out, since landscapes aren’t considered as functional as the innards of a house, financially conscious planners will head there first. The truth is though, enhancing your landscape can be more cost effective than renovating, and can yield a higher return. Studies have shown that home owners can actually earn back anywhere from 100-200% of their landscape investment, whereas renovations to the kitchen earn about 75-125%, bathrooms 80-120%, patios/decks 40-70% and pools 20-50%. The common misconception with when homeowners spend large sums of money on a swimming pool is that it will add an aesthetic and functional appeal to a home, but forget about the cost of heating the pool, maintenance, water, and safety for kids and pets.

During our current tough economical times, where real estate isn’t as flourishing as it was, it is of interest to home owners to get the most value out of their property as possible. Often times, a well maintained and attractive backyard suggests to buyers that the home is just as well cared for. Event though you may not be looking to sell, the higher value your home is worth means the more equity you will have.

Another gain from landscaping that includes being earth friendly along with saving money is how certain landscape details can reduce utility fees by 25%. Structures and additions such as trees, thatch kits, umbrella kits, or other bamboo products, can provide shade by absorbing sun rays, or deflect wind during cold wind-chills.



The other side of landscaping is that it doesn’t have to be expensive. By using quality and inexpensive materials such as bamboo, you can create a dynamic aesthetic to your property without breaking the bank. Renovations, although can be helpful and practical if needed, can cost more in the long if additional work to electrical wires, or removing or adding walls, and consulting various specialists for certain tasks.

The truth is when creating your sanctuary of solace; the project is ongoing and may never be complete. This process should be a positive one that grants you satisfaction in seeing the fruition of your work, planning and investment. Similarly to why we take vacations, your home and garden should provide you with that same sense of relaxation.

Items such as garden statues, tiki statues, bamboo fencing and water fountains can provide your backyard with colorful blooms of texture and visual aesthetics to invigorate your senses.

Benefits of using Bamboo versus Other Wood Materials

The use of bamboo for various décor projects in place of other types of wood has become extremely popular. This is because bamboo products possess remarkable qualities, in comparison to other varying types of wood. Additionally, utilizing bamboo accents create a pleasant, relaxing and tropical feel to one’s home. People are using bamboo fencing, bamboo poles, bamboo thatch, bamboo rugs, bamboo flooring, and much more to turn their homes into tropical paradise. The appeal that bamboo has over other varying woods is its unique aesthetic, affordability, functionality and strong quality.

What is Bamboo?

Bamboo is technically a group of woody perennial evergreen plants. Simply put bamboo is a tree-like grass. It is considered extremely renewable because it is the fastest growing woody plant in the world. Bamboo can betreated and can also form a very hard, lightweight, but durable wood. This durable wood works effectively for construction, architecture, decoration, furniture, and more.

Environmental Benefits of Bamboo Products

Bamboo has a number of environmental benefits. It has been and will continue to be considered the “green” building and decorating material. The extremely rapid growth, sustainability, and natural regeneration properties of bamboo are what primarily responsible for bamboo being considered the “green” material.

There are thousands of species of bamboo that grow around the world, including some species right here in the United States. Bamboo grows very rapidly, making it extremely renewable. Unlike traditional types of wood, bamboo can grow from cut stems and shoots have been observed to grow over 3ft in one day. Since bamboo regenerates so quickly, cutting it won’t affect its growing power. Unlike other types of woods, bamboo can easily and speedily be re-grown in a reasonably short period of time.



Strength of Bamboo

Contrary to popular belief, bamboo is very durable and resilient. In fact, although bamboo is flexible and lightweight, it has received hardness, or strength, ratings higher than many hardwoods. Also, bamboo has been likened to maple wood, which has been observed as one of the hardest woods available. Additionally, bamboo is also a naturally water resistant material and part of the manufacturing process of bamboo includes lamination which increases its resistance to warping.

Versatility of Bamboo

Bamboo is tremendously versatile. It can be used for construction, architecture, decoration, food, musical instruments, medicine, furniture, fishing rods, and much, much more. In the United States, bamboo is typically used for decorative purposes for home and garden. Bamboo’s durability also allows it to be used for flooring, fencing, wall coverings and area rugs in high traffic or weathering areas.. With such numerous uses for bamboo, it’s not wonder why bamboo products offer such versatility for one’s home or landscaping needs. For example, because of its water resiliency, bamboo can be used in places where typical woods cannot such as bathrooms, outdoor patios, and kitchens.

Another convenience factor is, unlike many other hardwood products, bamboo flooring needs no finish work and is factory pre-finished with a laminate varnish. Bamboo fencing or applying bamboo poles to a pre-existing fence is an affordable and eye pleasing way to really spruce up any area..

Regardless of the decorating project at hand or how you choose to incorporate bamboo elements, the use of bamboo will turn your home or yard into an island getaway right at home, that will provide you and your friends comfort, entertainment, relaxation, and unique beauty for years.

Reed Fencing is an Elegant Tropical Solution

Transforming your backyard into a tropical oasis is one of the easiest ways to bring a sense of the islands into your everyday life. A key way to accomplish the transformation is the easy to apply bamboo fencing, thatch and Bamboo products.

Bamboo fencing is a great solution for covering existing fences and structures, or hiding unsightly pool pumps or dog kennels. It is sturdy, durable, and does the work of a traditional fence. At times though, a solid fence is not what you are looking for, but rather something with a lighter weight and texture. The answer is reed fencing. Reed fencing serves as an excellent screen while its cousin bamboo fencing serves more as a fence.

Reed fencing is created from a beautiful tropical grass banded together with a fabric based thread. Once installed, reed fencing provides a 25% opacity allowing for sight through the fence and onto the other side. It is perfect for an interior pool screen or to semi-disguise a side yard or garden. The ability for light to pass through the fence heightens the sense that you have truly slipped away to a tropical paradise.



Reed fencing also serves as an excellent interior wall covering because of its relatively light weight and minimal thickness. It can be stapled or tied directly to the wall and creates the illusion that the room you are in is actually a Tiki hut in some far away island paradise.



Bamboo and Tikis delivers excellent quality reed fencing in 6’ X 16’ foot rolls that can easily be cut to your specifications. Try reed fencing today and feel the difference a little tropics can make in your life.

Do’s and Dont’s with Landscaping

Whenever assessing a new project, especially on the scale of landscaping or making additions to an existing landscape, the options and list of things to do can be quite overwhelming. With spring right around the corner, it’s that time of year again where an addition of elements or a redesign of an area can help spruce up and bring in a fresh new feel. Here are some do’s and dont’s to help you effectively work through your project and make it enjoyable.



Before anything else, do plan! It’s important to have an end goal in mind as to what you wish to accomplish. Don’t randomly purchase items, until you have gone over each area you plan to work on, one at a time.

In your planning, it is important to first decide what it is you need and want. This area will be your sanctuary and place where much time will spent so considering factors such as type of use, children, and pets can aid in deciding how things will be laid out.

Once you have a general idea of what you want, next is to find one focal point that you would like to accent and broaden from there. This focal point can be anything from a Tiki Bar, a garden statue, or even just a simple seating area covered by a tropical thatch. Focal points generally can be placed centered or to the back of an area, which allows the eye to follow the landscape to the focused area.

When planning placement of various items, it’s easy to fall in love with everything and get carried away. Don’t get rid of an area all together in the process of revamping. Sometimes various areas can become visually stimulating just by accenting with details such as a bamboo border. In evaluating your landscape, it’s important to maintain a consistent theme. Incorporating too many styles can cause a dizzying and cluttered effect. Elements such as varying heights, lighting, and fixture accents can help create dimension and texture to your backyard.

Don’t randomly place things expecting them to fit. Take the time to measure an area, and view it from different angles.

Don’t stress on constricting yourself to a timeline, and don’t sacrifice comfort for aesthetics. Remember that this is a process and although you may never feel your project is complete, it’s important to enjoy the journey to developing your landscape.

Anyone can enjoy their own bit of paradise right outside there door without breaking the bank. With Bamboo and Tikis, you can find the perfect treasures to add to the ambience and aesthetic of your landscape, at an affordable price, without forgoing quality.

How to Transform your Backyard into a Tropical Resort

Take a moment to imagine yourself relaxing comfortably and swaying back and forth in a hammock tied between two coconut-filled palm trees. Next to you is an exquisite bamboo tiki bar stocked with an array of refreshing tropical drinks and tasty snacks. On the tiki bar hangs a charming bamboo tiki sign welcoming you to pure bliss. Accompanying you are unique tiki statues, a glowing fire pit, thatched umbrellas hovering over adorable patio tables, bamboo tiki poles, and gleaming tiki torches. You are at ease enjoying a beautiful sunset and sensational music with your friends and loved ones. This truly is paradise.

While imagining all of this, you probably envisioned a spectacular island setting, on an immaculate beach somewhere either in Hawaii, the Bahamas, Aruba, or another popular tropical travel destination. Well, you no longer have to travel far to experience this wonderful feeling. In fact, your personal paradise is only a few steps away in your own backyard. You can now relax, entertain, and thoroughly take pleasure in your very own exotic backyard paradise!


The best way to create that sought-after exotic tropical feel is to enhance and accent with various bamboo products, palm trees, and additional tropical décor. Bamboos are a group of woody, fast-growing perennial evergreen plants. When treated, bamboo can form a very hard, lightweight, and durable wood. Because bamboo is durable, flexible, versatile, and environmentally-friendly, it has long been used for a variety of applications. For example, bamboo has been used for construction, architecture, musical instruments, medicine, décor, food, and much more. The use of Bamboo for decorative purposes has become most dominant use in the United States.

Bamboo and Tikis is one of the nation’s leading bamboo décor provider. The founders of Bamboo and Tikis, Jamie Kocher and Steve Raketich, have partnered in business for more than 21 years. Two surfers from Hawaii, who moved to Southern California in 1985, have been fully committed to the endless hours needed to make their business expand and prosper. Their dedication, motivation, and passion have resulted in Bamboo and Tikis becoming one of the largest provider of high-quality bamboo goods and backyard related products in the western United States. At Bamboo and Tikis, you’ll find superior bamboo products and a variety of tropical décor to turn your home and landscape into the ultimate tropical paradise. We have bamboo products and tropical décor for all of your decorating needs. With our excellent goods and extensive selection, you will be able to unleash your creativity and imagination. Adding our bamboo products and tropical décor to your home and/or yard, will enable you to experience the exotic tropical retreat you’ve always wanted. Your home and yard will become the source of relaxation, entertainment, and enjoyment for you and your loved ones for years to come.

Steps to Transform your Backyard into a Tropical Paradise

1. Install Bamboo Fencing throughout your backyard for an instant tropical feel.
2. Landscape your backyard with elegant palm trees, and rich tropical flowers. This step is key when trying to create a warming tropical feel.
3. Provide poolside lounge seating for your guests, with small tables for drinks and snacks.
4. Add custom tiki statues and tiki torches to set the exotic mood.
5. Add a sand pit for volleyball games or you can use it as a play area for children.
6. Install a bamboo tiki bar for entertaining your guests. Don’t forget to stock your bar, your guests will be anxious to have a drink once they see your backyard paradise.
7. Invest in some vivid pool lighting to make your backyard look remarkable during all hours of the night.
8. Outdoor speakers can complete this feeling with tropical or relaxing ambient tunes. After a few drinks you can liven up the party with some upbeat dance music.

There are numerous ways to turn your home into the ultimate tropical paradise. Bamboo and Tikis enables you to choose among a wide variety of high-quality products to construct your ideal tropic backyard.

You can cover or completely replace unsightly fences with bamboo fencing. You can either use rolled bamboo fencing for this project or bamboo tiki poles. Our rolled bamboo fencing is made of durable Tonkin bamboo cane from southeast China. We offer bamboo poles in a variety of shapes and sizes. We also offer several natural and black tiki poles, including full round, half-round poles, and bamboo slates.



Another decorating idea would be to throw a beautiful bamboo area rug on your patio or indoors in your hallways, kitchen, living room, or another desired place. Our bamboo area rugs are made of 100% organic Moso Bamboo. The bamboo is laminated onto a fabric with a non-slip design providing both durability and versatility. These rugs can be used on a variety of surfaces including hardwood floors, carpet, tile, and cement.

Additionally, you can put a unique tiki bar, either custom-made or pre-assembled, in your backyard, living room, family room, game room, or another room. These bars are great conversation pieces and provide years of enjoyment. You can stock the bar with your favorite tropical drink mixes, macadamia nuts, and pretty umbrella drink toothpicks for extra appeal.



Moreover, you can place a colorful, Hawaiian-Polynesian style tiki statue in your yard. Tiki statues are unique, fun ways to spruce up your tropical paradise. They are often times used for celebratory and worship purposes in the Polynesian culture. Typically, each statue represents a different Polynesian god. All of our tiki statues are hand-carved from solid coconut palm material by an experienced artist, and then carefully kiln dried and finished with waterproof spar varnish. Because each statue is hand-carved, no two tiki statues are alike.



The ideas for creating a fantastic tropical paradise in your home and/or yard really are endless. You can use some of the ideas briefly discussed here and you can view our bamboo installation gallery for various uses and installation ideas for all of our superb bamboo products and tropical décor. By transforming your home and/or yard into an inviting exotic tropical retreat, you will be able to host the best luau parties, share your paradise with friends and loved ones, and relax in pure beauty.

Top Bamboo and Tikis products include our exquisite bamboo tiki bars and thatched roofing, consisting of thatch panels or a thatched umbrella. Additionally, our colorful and unique tiki statues and durable rolled bamboo fencing are hot items. No matter which products you choose, all products at Bamboo and Tikis are of top-quality and are excellent for both indoor and outdoor use.

Bamboo and Tikis is your #1 source for affordable bamboo products and tropical décor. Excellent customer service, customer satisfaction, and providing high-quality products at unbeatable prices are our highest priorities. Feel free to contact one of our customer service representatives or stop by our grand showroom in San Diego. With our extensive selection of bamboo fencing, tiki statues, tiki bars, and a number of other items, we are positive you will find the right bamboo products and tropical décor for your landscaping project. So, check us out and start turning your home and yard into a spectacular tropical paradise.