Landscape lighting can bring the outdoors inside at night by making your yard visible from windows. Lighting also makes it easier and safer to travel through your landscape after dark. Lighted entrances, driveways and walkways express hospitality, allow identification of visitors and discourage trespassers. Also, consider lighting for specific outdoor after dark activities. Garden lighting extends the enjoyment of your landscape into the evening hours.
Adding some colored bulbs in your landscape lights is an easy and expansive way to decorate your landscape for the holidays. But be careful of certain colors on your shrubs as it can turn them grey.
Landscape lighting should be designed with people in mind. While it is important to illuminate areas for safety and security and to accentuate important features in your landscape, keep glaring from the light in mind. Lights should never be at eye level because the glare can reduce visibility rather than enhance it. Eye level is about five feet for standing adults and three and a half feet for sitting areas and areas accessible by wheelchair. A basic rule in landscape lighting is to use indirect lighting instead of direct “head-on” lighting. Indirect lighting is achieved when the light source is hidden from view and only the effects of the lighting are seen. Techniques in lighting include down-lighting, up-lighting, silhouette-lighting, shadow-lighting, cross-lighting and graze-lighting. Several of these techniques can be used in one design.
Down-lighting is directed straight down onto objects to be illuminated. Down-lighting can be used close to the ground to provide indirect light to walkways and steps or can be positioned above patios or play areas to illuminate these large areas. Be sure these lights are positioned so they do not shine on a neighbor’s property.
Up-lighting is accomplished by positioning the light below the object to be illuminated. Up-lighting is used to accentuate plants or objects. Lights positioned above eye level in trees or at ground level and pointing upward can illuminate interesting branching habits. Ground level lights for up-lighting should be obscured from direct view by the plants, the light fixture or by angling away from the direction of view.
Silhouette and shadow-lighting are created by lighting objects from one side and are used to accentuate the form of the objects or plants you are illuminating. Silhouette-lighting is achieved by lighting the background (a fence or wall) so the dark object is viewed against an illuminated surface or by back lighting the object so that it is viewed against a dark background. Shadow-lighting creates definition and interest by using side lighting to cast a shadow of an object on a patio, fence or wall. Effects of an interesting branching habit ban be further multiplied by casting shadows in more than one direction with cross-lighting.
Cross-lighting is lighting an object from opposite directions, either from front to back or side to side. Light fixtures for cross-lighting are usually positioned near the ground and the light intensities from the two fixtures are generally different.
Graze-lighting is used to accentuate the textured surface of objects. Interesting exterior siding of a house can be accentuated by concealing lights in a shrub and directing the light so that it grazes the wall. Textured qualities of bark, foliage and fences can also be accentuated with graze-lighting.
The texture, size and growth habit of plants should dictate the type of indirect lighting to accentuate interesting features. Up-lighting is best for plants that are open and cross-lighting at sharp angles is best for dense foliage. Landscape lighting should bring out the texture and shapes of objects and plants being illuminated. Light radiating from between an object and a viewer and shining directly on the object will make it appear flat and two dimensional. Indirect light reflecting off the surfaces of objects defines the fixture and shape of the object and will accentuate interesting features.
Home improvement stores have a large selection of landscape lights along with the necessary hardware to install them. Solar lights can be easier since there is no wiring involved. If this all sounds like more than you can handle there are many electrical and landscaping companies that do landscape lighting. With your input and their knowledge you’ll soon be enjoying your landscape night and day.