How to Design a Lighting Plan for Your Garden

Lighting can allow you to enjoy the special atmosphere of a garden at night as well as make it safer to navigate.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Outdoor Lighting

1. Use the minimum amount of light so that you can enjoy the special qualities of nighttime. Flooding the whole garden with bright light creates an artificial atmosphere and washes out the moonlight, the night sky and the intimate atmosphere of darkness.

2. Simulate the light level of a bright, moonlit night.

3. Light the pathways in your garden. Even if you don't have defined paths through the garden, you probably have a route or two through it that you'll want illuminated for safety. Use path lights or create a series of pools of light that lead through the garden.

4. Hide the sources of the lights. Unless they are decorative elements themselves, light fixtures should illuminate the garden and not draw attention to themselves. Even a beautiful stone lamp does not need a visible, glaring bulb.

5. Include decorative light fixtures with moderation. Introducing a light fixture is an ideal occasion to add style to your garden. Be careful that you don't overdo it. (See 'eHow to Avoid Major Errors in Taste in Your Landscape Improvements.")

6. Accent the most dramatic trees in the garden. Illuminating the trunk and branches of a tree from below draws attention to their beauty and adds enough of an ambient glow that the garden can be safely navigated at night.