Garden Lighting
Well, winter’s coming to an end and your garden is approaching the stage where you will probably need to think about sprucing it up for it to look its best during the spring and summer. Across America, homeowners nowadays treat their gardens as extensions of their homes rather than an outside space, and a very good way to beautify this space is to use garden lighting. On the practical side, a good-looking garden complete with garden lighting immeasurably increases the sale price of your home should the necessity arise.
In these days of innovation and unique ideas, garden lighting is no longer confined to patio and wall lights. Garden lighting fixtures can be placed at every conceivable angle and in every position to highlight the attractive aspects of your garden – whether to create lovely silhouettes or to accentuate the artificial waterfall.
How to be creative in your garden lighting
- It is not enough to place lights behind trees if you want to silhouette them properly. You must have lights below them as well. Also, if you are lighting your foliage, ideally use green lights so that the leaves appear greener
- For fences and walls, use gentler lights because these don’t need highlighting
- For water features, submersible lights are a must
- If your garden has archways or façades, embellish these features using up lights
- In all cases, focus on bright colors like yellow, red and orange for a warm ambience. However, be careful not to overdo it, an aspect we will talk more about later
How to be practical in your garden lighting
Low voltage fittings are the automatic choice when it comes to practical lighting, which is not to say you can’t be creative. For instance, recessed lighting in steps and under handrails can be both practical (they can prevent a fall, for instance) and beautiful. In addition, you can position them to reflect your unique taste.
A lot of people are hampered by the absence of adequate garden lighting during evening dos like a garden party or a barbecue. As a solution, you can try hidden spotlights that are nevertheless strong enough to illuminate any area that needs more lighting (e.g. the drinks table). In addition to spotlights, you can go in for special lights that illuminate your steps, walkways and other nooks and crannies.
Some things to remember
- Do not use lights that are not specifically meant for outdoor use
- Unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing, get a professional electrician to install the lighting
- When buying your garden lighting fixtures, don’t opt for the cheap varieties unless you want the lights only on a short-term basis. In the long run, expensive but better quality products give more value for money
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