It’s a shame to miss so much of the daylight hours when we can fully appreciate the effort we have put into our gardens. Installing outdoor lighting is a great way to extend the hours of enjoyment in your garden, provide safety for your family and visitors, and highlight or hide features in the landscape.
Establish why you will install outdoor lighting.
- Task lighting covers the practical reasons for installing outdoor lighting such as being able to move through your yard safely at night, to deter intruders, to light pathways and driveways, and for outdoor food preparation. If this is your purpose, flood lighting and path lighting are your options.
- Accent lighting draws attention to specific places within your landscape, such as a particular tree, water feature or sculpture and away from other areas that are not so aesthetically pleasing. Up lighting and silhouetting are your options.
- Ambient lighting provides subtle, gentle light around an al fresco area and creates a romantic atmosphere.
Plan.
If you are adding outdoor lighting to a new landscape, create a design before you begin construction so you can easily install cables and general-purpose outlets without having to interfere with existing turf, etc. If you are adding lighting to your current landscape, it’s best if you spend some time in your yard creating your desired lighting scheme with candles and torches. This will give you some idea of what the finished design will look like. Whether you are installing lighting into an existing or new landscape, consult a lighting professional, as they can give you tips that you may not have already considered.
Know your lighting options.
- Halogen lights have been the most popular type in the past, but due to concerns over energy efficiency, the government has decided to phase them out by 2010. Halogen lights can also be expensive to run, create a lot of heat, causing the bulbs to blow and emit UV rays, which attracts bugs.
- LED (light-emitting diode) lights have a lifespan of 15 years, saving time and effort on replacing globes, are very inexpensive to run and don’t emit heat or UV rays. In addition, LED lighting will emit the same amount of light as halogen but also has the ability to emit light in different colours.
There’s a wide range of types and styles that you can use to create your desired effect of outdoor lighting in your garden. Beautify your garden with the help of gardening professionals.