Garden Lights HelpYour source for garden lighting information

Garden and landscape light is great – it can allow you to create and enjoy a beautiful atmosphere at night, and it will also make it much safer to walk around in the dark! As you’re thinking about the lighting you’d like to set up, you’ll probably want to try one or more of these great ideas:

1 – Use the minimum amount of light in your garden so that you can enjoy the special qualities of night time. Low-voltage lights work great for this. If you flood the entire garden with bright light, you’ll just create an artificial atmosphere and wash out the great moonlight, the night sky, and the intimate atmosphere of the darkness.

2 – Try to simulate the light level of a night lit by a full moon. That will create the ambience recommended above.

3 – Light the pathways in your garden. Even if you don’t have well-defined paths in your garden, you’ll probably still want to specify a route or two that you should illuminate for safety purposes. And if you do have paths, lighting them up will add beautifully to the organic parts of your garden. Use path lights or create a series of pools of light to lead through your garden.

4 – Hide the light sources. Unless the lights or lamps themselves are meant to be decorative elements, your light fixtures should illuminate the garden without drawing attention to themselves. Even a beautiful stone lamp doesn’t need a visible, glaring light bulb.

5 – Use decorative light fixtures and elements in moderation. Introducing a decorative light fixture is an ideal way to add a bit of style to your garden. Just be careful you don’t overdo it.

6 – Use lights to accent the most dramatic trees in your garden. You can illuminate the trunk and branches of a tree from below, which will draw attention to their beauty and add the perfect amount of ambient glow to make the garden safe to walk around in at night.

Before you begin, you’ll need to ask yourself “What are my gardening needs and what am I trying to achieve by lighting my garden?”

Unless you choose to use solar garden lights, most garden lighting requires some kind of electrical cabling, so it would be wise to keep your lights away from areas that you’ll often be digging in or around. For example, you probably shouldn’t put lights in or right around areas where you’ll be planting and maintaining annual or bulb flowers.

When you get to the point when you’re ready to choose your lighting, think about what you’re trying to achieve. Do you want the beautiful tree in the middle of your garden to stand out more than the rest? Do you want some spindly plant silhouetted in light from the back? Do you want your garden lit from above, below, behind or in front? These are all things to consider. Here are some types of lighting to give you an idea of your options:

• Up Lighting – this is achieved by placing lights at the base of a plant, tree or architectural feature and can be very artistic.
• Down Lighting – this is a common form of lighting. It can be created by placing the lights higher up so that they illuminate an area of plants or other feature from above.
• Shadow Lighting – place lights at angles in front of a plant or structure to cast a shadow on a wall. This type of lighting can be very dramatic if done well.
• Silhouetted Lighting – this is the opposite of shadow lighting, which is achieved by placing a light behind a plant or landscape feature to silhouette it as you look toward it.
• Illumination Lighting – there is still a need for illumination in the garden so that visitors can find paths, navigate steps and stairs, and walk freely without falling victim to a hazardous toy left by your 3-year old child.
• Lighting for Water Features – there are so many options for lighting your ponds, fountains, waterfalls, and other water features. Many are easy to install and only run on 12 volts.

There are as many options available as there are ideas you could come up with. Why not turn your garden into something you don’t have to enjoy only in the daylight? You better get started!