Garden Lighting

As a homeowner, there are certain things you do to create a beautiful environment. One way of creating a beautiful home is keeping up the lawn and garden aspect. Whether you hired a landscaping company to put in the plants, shrubs, and flowers, or you did it yourself as a weekend chore you actually enjoy tending to every Saturday morning, the matter of lighting is one you will need to consider. With the right lighting for gardens, you can elevate your area into a whole new realm for a more serene, enjoyable home. Here are a few tips on lighting for gardens to get the best result.

1. Light with an upward cast light spread

While it may be tempting to choose overheard lights for a garden area, it is actually smarter to select a light you place lower to the ground to cast upward light spread. The reasons for this is because it will help move shadows up instead of down, light the details of the plants better with more depth, and it allows you to more easily hide the wires, cords, or fixture itself while still getting illumination.

2. Work with shadows to your advantage

While choosing uplight will naturally create shadows, this can be used to the advantage of the space. Shadows can create a certain ambiance that is hard to achieve sans shadow. A garden should be a place of tranquility, and soothing to look upon at night. With shadows, you casually create a gentle look over one that focuses on being overly bright to reduce shadows.

3. Use reflectors and diffusers

If you do choose a brighter light in terms of lumen output, you will need to install reflectors or diffusers. The reflectors can help reduce shadow while the diffusers will create a gentle, more even toned light.

4. Watch light beam spread

When planning the placement of your lighting fixture for the garden, you should also experiment with the exact placement at night. This allows you to see where the light spread will fall in the dark, so you can eliminate any issues. If you place a light incorrectly by installing during the day when you can’t see the spread as clearly, you might end up shining it into your windows or worse, your neighbor’s windows.

5. Set timers

As with any area of your home, you want to ensure a cost-effective solution. With timers installed, you can have the lights come on and turn off at a certain time. Maybe you want the lights on after dinner without having to turn them on while you lounge on the deck. Timers allow this ease of illumination and ensure you will never forget to turn them off or leave them running during the day when they aren’t needed.