Garden Lighting - Six Great Ideas
Garden and landscape lights are great - they allow you to create and enjoy a beautiful ambience in your garden at night.
They'll also make it much safer to walk around in the dark, especially if you have kids! As you're thinking about the lighting you'd like to install, you'll likely want to try one or more of these great ideas: 1 - 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.
2 - 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.
3 - Try to simulate the light level of a night lit by a full moon.
That will create the ambience recommended above.
4 - 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.
5 - 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.
6 - 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.
They'll also make it much safer to walk around in the dark, especially if you have kids! As you're thinking about the lighting you'd like to install, you'll likely want to try one or more of these great ideas: 1 - 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.
2 - 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.
3 - Try to simulate the light level of a night lit by a full moon.
That will create the ambience recommended above.
4 - 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.
5 - 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.
6 - 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.