Getting your garden to look just the way you want it to is not only not easily done, but it is an ongoing fight against weeds, pests and disease, so once you have lovely garden, the next stage is how to display it in all lighting and weather conditions. This piece of writing is about just that: how to use landscape lighting to great effect.
One facet of landscape lighting is called accent lighting. This kind of lighting is used to subtly light up bushes or flowers along with other things. You can also light up a snow storm or rain, it gives a beautiful effect, but this takes more powerful lighting such as flood lights.
The point is that you do not need to have the beauty of your garden on display for only the day light hours, you can also get great enjoyment out of it in the evenings and even at night; in the summer and in the winter.
There is a huge choice of landscape lighting. For instance, there are lamps, lanterns, floodlights and spotlights, and they can be powered by grid electricity or by the sun. Clearly, if you want to use grid electricity, you will need to have an electrician lay armoured cable in your garden, which can be costly and is pretty permanent.
The alternative is solar powered lighting, which is impermanent. If you put it somewhere and then change your mind, you can move it yourself, and there are no electricity running costs. Solar powered light fittings are more expensive than standard ones, but all in all, taking into account the electrician's fees and the ongoing electricity bill, solar powered devices work out cheaper. Plus, you will be doing something for the environment that every gardener is doing his or her best to protect.
This article is not concerned with security lighting, but landscape lighting does have a spin-off by adding extra security to your property. Before buying any landscape lighting, you ought to have a good idea of what you are looking for.
There are several ways of going about this. You could first of all draw a plan of your garden and photocopy it a couple of times so that you can commit your thoughts to paper.
You could take a walk around your local neighborhood and pick up ideas by observing neighbours' gardens. You could go look at how the municipality lights its parks and public buildings, and you could obtain a few landscaping magazines to see the latest items on the market.
It is also worth visiting a few gardening centres, because they will also be showing off their merchandise to their full advantage. As you get ideas, pencil them in on one of your photocopies. If you want to test a few ideas very roughly, you could put a suitable flashlight under a bush that you reckon would benefit from landscape lighting and observe it. If you do not like it erase it from your plan and try something else.
Once you are happy with your plan, go out and buy the requisite lighting. If they are mains supplied you will need an electrician, if they are solar powered you do not. If you try some of these ideas you will soon learn how to use landscape lighting to great effect.
More Information:
Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on a number of topics, but is at present involved with
outdoor accent lighting. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at
Outdoor Wall Lamps.
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