How To Moderate Your Garden Lighting Plan
Garden lighting can be awfully addictive. You get started with one light and the next thing you know, you’ve got more garden lights than plants, flowers and shrubs. Get hooked, in other words, and you might just forget to know when to stop. Because let’s face it – isn’t there always another rose bush that needs a little more illumination? Or a garden path that needs a few solar powered ground lights?
And it doesn’t necessarily end with the lighting, either. You head to the Lighting Universe or Amazon and start to look at gazing balls. You find yourself purchasing some garden wind spinners. And then you are stringing a dozen Japanese lanterns between the dwarf apple trees.
And then you realize that you have given up on the classy look in favor of something that’s a little more . . . well, let’s just call it busy.
The truth is, when it comes to expanding on or adding to your garden, all those decorative pieces can start to overwhelm your outdoor landscape. Because the truth is, garden lighting and garden design décor often boils down to one key fact. Less is often more.
So when you start getting a hankering to add some more exterior lighting, look hard at your garden space. What is the natural play of light and shadow? Does it look best when the morning sun is on it or the afternoon? Or perhaps you’ve got a garden that is at its best at twilight.
Heck, why not take a look at your garden under the light of a full moon?
When it comes to exterior garden lights, you want to imitate natural lighting. In fact, you may want to aim for nothing more than a subtle enhancement.
You need to pay careful attention to your garden at night. Why? Because that is when your lighting system is going to be working. So look at what you’ve got before the lights go in. Use a flashlight – or several, preferably with beams of varying brightness and hues – and see how they work when played across the garden.
How does everything look?
Be sure that you are aware of other sources of light that might affect your lighting plans. For example, there might be a street light or two nearby. Or maybe your neighbor up the street has a floodlight on the garage that hits your garden.
Isolate and identify every light that’s going to impact the garden lighting scheme.
Finally, you want to remember the basic rule – less is more. Don’t go and drown your garden in lights. Take it slow and easy and try to moderately boost the garden’s natural beauty and presence.
Related posts:
