How to Light Up a Landscape

Light gives us an entire new way to see our gardens, from a light on the water feature to an uplight that shows us what the trees look like in the dark. Light shows off architecture that we occasionally don't notice during the day, but with lightning, that architecture can become a focal point at night. Lets find out how to light up a landscape.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Install the lighting yourself. Most people think landscape lighting is very expensive. Low voltage light is available and the homeowner can easily install it. If the homeowner does not have access to 120 V power, an electrician is needed.

2. Use LED light. The initial cost is more, but the long-term cost is much less.

3. Light up your pond. Surround your pond with low light. Use a mushroom light, not one that shines on your pond like a spotlight. Make the pond and surrounding area soft as if it is moonlight shining on it. Don't worry about copper light near your pond fish. Copper can only harm your fish if you use it in large amounts.

4. Light up irregularities in your landscape. If you have a wonderful knotty tree or twisted branches, uplight it. An uplight is much like a spotlight that points straight up. It will have a stake attached to it, so you can stick in in the ground and point it up into the tree where it looks spectacular.

5. Light up a path. There are lights that are elevated about 4 inches in the air. You can use these to light a path or a patio. These lights are usually soft and used to light the way for walkers or strollers, but are not obtrusive.

6. Use light year-round. Light can make snow sparkle. It can create a romantic spot under a snow covered arbor.

7. Check out fiber optic light. You have seen it on Christmas trees, now use it in the landscape. You can thread it through tree branches, in shrubs and around rocks and boulders for a fairy tale look. Us it to light up a fountain or bubbling geyser in your pond. Use light as another tool to add drama to your garden, so you can enjoy it for much longer each day.

[sprinkl]

on 3/3/2009 SprinkLites(TM) can add a new Paradigm to Landscape Lighting. There are other Hummingbird, Butterfly, and Dragonfly lights, but that is where the similarity ends. SprinkLites(TM) can be mounted to trees and placed into bushes where there is not enough sunlight for solar and they glow very brightly. Connect them to a sprinkler system for amazing functional hybrid path lights.