How to Design Outdoor Lighting in Your Garden

Night lighting is more than beautiful...

Adding night lighting to your garden adds drama, beauty and safety to the landscape.

Instructions

1. 

   Outdoor lighting has a lot of benefits. Yes, it can transform a garden area into a magical paradise, but it can also avoid accidents and make your home safer from thieves and other undesirable folks who would benefit from hiding in the dark.

2. 

   Decide the most visually attractive area of your garden that can be seen easily at night. This is your focal point.

3. Design your lighting ideas on paper. By sketching out what kind of lighting goes where, you will make it easy to compile a shopping list and to actually install your lighting. You will likely alter your designs during installation, but most of the moving around will happen on paper first saving you a lot of time and money later.

4. 

   Light up a specific area for nighttime use. If you have a swimming pool or a hot tub you might be using after dark for enjoyment or entertainment, make sure the area is well lit. If the space is well-designed, this can be your main focal point. And even if you choose another area for your focal point, good lighting is still a wise idea in an area that will handle foot traffic in the dark.

5. 

   Effects:
   **Up-lighting is when you shine a light upward, like into the branches of a tree, for example. This makes an area seem to shine from within.
   **Front-lighting is when you shine your lights directly ahead. It makes the whole area glow.
   **Down-lighting is just what it sounds like. Placing lights high on branches or roofing creates an umbrella effect of light.
   **Back-lighting creates silouhettes. By placing lighting behind strong forms, the wall behind lights up and the plants in front create cut-out designs.

6. 

   When you use low voltage lighting your lights will be strung off of the electrical box or 'transformer'. This will be connected into your main electrical supply and should always have a GFI switch for safety. So when you design your lights, consider either stubbing in an electrical line to bring out electricity into the garden, or plan on running your lights directly from the transformer box on an already existing electrical source, maybe on the house itself.

7. 

   Use solar lights for spot effects. Most commercially available solar lights are still inadequate to light up a whole landscape at present. But there are many great ways to use them anyway. Dot low lamps up a hillside or along a meandering path that leads up to your brighter-lit focal point. Use solar lamps to mark out steps or hang a solar lantern for effect over a special feature or on a table where the glow is like dining by candle light.

8. 

   Night lighting can be an art in itself. If you aren't sure of what you want, read, research or call in a professional lighting designer. For the most part low voltage and solar lights do not have to be expensive so you can buy some of the more readily available products at home stores and nurseries and experiment with them yourself. You are not dealing with full 110 voltage so trial-and-error is safer. But always be careful when dealing with electricity. And, again, if you have doubts, call in a designer or contractor for help.

Resources

• Design a landscape plan