Depends exactly what you’re looking for. What’s your climate? And were you looking for colored lights, spotlights, fairy lights, floodlights? Also, what country are you in? The device selection does vary somewhat.
I just have my normal landscape lighting transformers plugged into zigbee outletS. I had to do some surgery to the transformer plugs so that they and the zigbee plugs would fit in the weatherproof housings, but otherwise they work just fine.
Or you could use any normal garden lights then wire them up to the electric via a smart plug or switch. Of course you would have to decide in advance what colour they were all going to be and buy the coloured bulbs or diffuser lenses.
I live in Michigan in the US so climate is all over the place. Lol but I will look into just doing a regular setup with the transformer.
These pathway lights are what I really wanted but Idk why they are not being made or sold anymore
I’m in the UK and looked into the options, I will have 8 LED spike lights around my garden so although I could put smart bulbs in each light that would end up costing quite a bit, and my weatherproof sockets won’t have enough space for a smart plug. So I decided the best option is to put a switch for the lights inside a weatherproof box and wire a fibaro single switch module to it. Only thing that doesn’t give you is RGB lights but for that you either go smart bulbs or integrated RGB lights which could be wired to a Fibaro module.
GE sells an outdoor weatherproof Z-wave plus switch which might do the trick. You can then just wire in standard outdoor pathway lights and control it from that. You’d pick it up on Amazon
I tried to get a standard smart switches into my outdoor weatherproof socket however it doesn’t fit as the cover is quite tight.
Not changeable, no, but normal dumb garden lights do come in different colours anyway, so if you have an idea that you want a blue grotto under some trees and warm amber on the patio you can do it without smart bulbs.
There are a number of different dumb RGB light strips that can be used with a smart controller that works with smartthings. You can get any of the strips that you like, so you can choose ones with outdoor ratings. Then you just put the controller in a project box that’s weatherproof.
People have been using the fibaro RGBW controller this way in both the UK and the US for several years. (They also use the same device to control sprinkler zones.)
You just have to make sure that you get the model that uses the same Z wave frequency as your hub.
In the last two years, a number of other brand options have become available as well, same idea. Smart controller, dumb strips. See the following thread. (The topic title is a clickable link.)
But that’s only good for low-voltage decorative lighting. For path lighting you might want something brighter, which is why I asked if white only lights would work or if the OP still wants RGB colors.
Ok, for the US, if it can be just plain white, then the “ring smart lighting“ series is very nice. I have quite a few of these. They don’t integrate directly with smart things, but you can use echo routines as an intermediary with good results. They come in several different form factors, including stake lights, wallmount, etc. Most models are available in either black or white cases. You need one bridge, and you can buy the individual lights in multi packs as needed.
These are battery-operated and quite bright, 80 lm for the stake lights.
These particular models are not yet available outside of the US, But in the US they are carried by many retailers including Amazon, Home Depot, Best Buy, Target, etc. so you might find some on a Fourth of July sale.
If you want color lights, the Hue are very nice, but as you mentioned, very expensive.
Another white alternative is to use the fibaro controller and connect it to individual halogen lights.
Or, as mentioned, dumb outdoor strips, in which case you can get color again.
I see that the Sylvania garden spots are sold out everywhere, but they are not marked as discontinued. So they may just have had some supply chain issues because of COVID-19, that has hit quite a few manufacturers.