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 Adding
Decorative Lighting to Your Landscaping
When you use outdoor lighting sparingly
and to highlight specific areas of your garden, you create a transition
space between the outside world and your home.
For garden lighting, less is always more. Bright floodlights are
perfect for heavily traveled paths and intersection, however for
gardens, soft energy efficient, inexpensive low-voltage lighting creates
the atmosphere that your garden deserves.
When you use outdoor lighting sparingly and to highlight specific areas
of your garden, you create a transition space between the outside world
and your home. By using directional lighting, you can transform your
garden and create interesting pools of light and shadow, or use it to
highlight special features that may be unnoticed in the light of day,
such as the bark of a river birch, hidden garden statuary, or a subtle
fountain in the center of a pond.
However, when you do use directional lighting, make sure that it shines
onto the feature you intend, and not into your neighbor’s bathroom or
bedroom window. Likewise, you also want to ensure that the tree, bush,
or areas that you wish to highlight is a home for birds or other
wildlife, which you very much desire as a part of your garden, bright
light can and will drive some wildlife away. For a happy medium between
you and nature, you can minimize the disruptive effects by using an
automatic timer for your lighting.
Along driveways, paths, and steps, directional lighting can create pools
of light to guide you ensuring your safety. When lighting is placed too
high along these areas, the light shines up in the face, leaving the
path and steps in shadows and making the way hazardous. Another way of
using light to provide safety as well as a warm and welcoming feeling
for you and your visitors is to have a pool of light directed onto the
doorknocker, and keyhole of your front door.
In addition to directional lighting, you should also consider the color
temperatures of the lights you select to create different moods within
your garden. The color temperature of light is measured in Kelvin units.
This refers to the degree of temperature that a “black mass” would have
to be heated to produce the same visual color, with the higher the color
temperature correlating with a cooler more blue appearing color of
light, which is perfect for highlighting plants. While lamps with low
warmer color temperatures, bring out the warmth of yellow and reds and
would be perfect to use around areas where people gather.
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