Landscape Lighting a Small Garden
Posted by Landscaper | Filed under Installation Guides, Landscape Lighting Effects, Landscape Lighting Trees, landscape lighting kits
Silly of me, I know, but I suppose some of you are wondering what the results of my weekend landscape lighting kit installation looked like. All that work on the step-by-step installation guide and I forgot to include pictures of the finished product. Let’s rectify that right away with the pictures that resulted from my efforts to landscape light my friend’s small garden.
This first shot shows the little pond and waterfall surrounded by planting beds. The light on the left was left with a full length stem. Eryn wanted the light on the right to be shorter (I didn’t ask why) so I only used half the stem when I put it in. They have plans to install a light in the pond so that the water and waterfall are illuminated from below but that’s a whole other installation effort entirely. This kit is NOT designed for underwater lighting. For now, the objective was just to light up the ferns and other plants around the pond a little so they can enjoy them at night.
This next image shows the way we used uplighting to cast dramatic shadows on the privacy fence on one side of their yard. I would have preferred the light to be set back a little further and angled down a hair so the full shadow of the palm hit the wall. Unfortunately the planting area is narrow so I could only move the light back so far. The result is that the top of the shadow gets cut off at the top of the fence. Still, it’s a dramatic look and you can see why they want another spot light so they can create an entire panorama of palm shadows on their fence with the 2 other palms in their garden. As for that tiki torch, I think it needs a home outside the lighting scheme, but they love seeing it all lit up.
The image above shows how the 2nd spotlight in the kit was angled to illuminate the trunk of the tree. Though not visible in the picture, the wash of light spreads nicely into the canopy as well. In a perfect world I’d want one more spot light placed behind the camera to splash even more light into the leaves above. Who knows… they have enough wattage to accommodate one so maybe they’ll make my dream a reality someday.
What you should remember with any uplighting effort is to place the landscape light so that it isn’t shining back towards the viewer in anyway. That’s almost impossible to accomplish in some cases so you have to make compromises. In this case, for example, the area most often occupied is behind the light in the brick patio area. Anybody walking in through the gate at night, however, would be a bit blinded. Rick and Eryn swear that nobody comes through that gate at night so, in this case, there isn’t much concern with it blinding anybody.
Finally, here’s a shot capturing most of their humble little garden. There are a pair of tier lights behind the lounge chairs you see in this picture. A pair of interesting potted plants live there and I’d like to see one of them spotlit to cast a tremendous shadow against the brick of the house, but the English ivy covering much of the brick would ruin the result.
As I already mentioned, Rick and Eryn love the result. It really is pretty nice for a couple hours of unexpected labor. The point for you, dear reader, is that just about anybody can install landscape lighting and get results like this. Better, even, if you have a yard that lends itself particularly well to being lit. So don’t let a false fear of complexity scare you off of the idea. This is something well within your grasp and the results you get, if you follow what you’ve learnt here and in my other posts, can be simply stunning.
Tags: landscape lighting a small garden, landscape lighting kit, tier lights, uplighting
Beautiful Moon Lit Landscape Lighting
Posted by Kathleen | Filed under Landscape Lighting Effects, Landscape Lighting Trees
Though there are many outdoor landscape lighting approaches I’m a fan of, perhaps one of my favorites has to be moon lighting. The objective in this style of lighting is to create the appearance of moonlight passing through the branches of trees. Done right, dappled shadows fall on the ground lending a fantasy feel to the area. Done wrong, branches seem to float strangely with no supporting trunk and maintenance becomes a pain.
One particular drawback to this type of landscape lighting is that landscape lighting kits are likely not going to include the lights, fasteners or louvers you will need to pull this style of lighting off. Most kits available in your hardware store offer collections of post-mounted lights only. I’ve found a tree mounting kit online but be aware that this kit only includes mounting harnesses, not lights.
To properly moon light an area requires an appropriate tree. Meandering branches, full leaves and interesting bark all lend themselves well to this approach. If your tree isn’t worth showing off or won’t create interesting shadows when lit from above and within, it really isn’t worth going through the effort this effect requires.
This approach requires getting up into your tree to place downward facing lights in the branches. That should immediately bring two things to mind, viewing perspective and maintenance. Let’s address viewing perspective first.
Consider where visitors will view your moonlit tree for best impact. With that spot in mind, picture three locations. Location 1 is the t
ree trunk. Location 2 is a point in the branches between the viewer and the tree trunk. Location 3 is the viewer’s position. Place your lighting in your tree branches so as best to angle the light away from the viewing position (see illustration).
Speaking of viewing angles, try not to place your lamps at more than a 25 to 30 degree angle from vertical. Over-angling your lighting could make what’s beautiful from within your garden a real nuisance to your neighbors.
That said, if you want to create a pool of shadows encompassing a broad area of the ground or if you have a bench directly beneath the tree, visible light sources may be unavoidable. To best minimize glare, you have two solutions you can employ. Use louvers to help angle light away from primary viewing spots and go for fairly low luminescence. The louvers are simply the equivalent of blinds for landscape lighting which angle the direction of light or block the source from view.
Bulb strengths and types as applied to landscape lighting of any kind is an extensive topic better held for an entire post of its own but, for moon lighting, recognize that you want to go fairly low strength. For small trees with low placed lights, you may end up going as low as 20-watt up to about 50-watt for large trees. Factors which will dictate the appropriate wattage are the height of light placement and density of foliage.
I mentioned maintenance as an important factor because, unlike other landscape lighting applications, moon lighting will require more effort to maintain. After all, your yearly maintenance will require you getting back up into that tree to adjust angels, fasteners, change bulbs or reaffix cabling. As your tree grows or spreads new branches, light positions that worked before may need to be adjusted. All in all, I think the effect is worth the effort, but if you are elderly or suffer from any physica
l challenges, this is one application in which you may want to give serious consideration to hiring professionals or friends to assist you.
One final item worth noting is the common mistake of failing to light the trunk of the tree that is moon lit. This oversight leaves the branches and leaves appearing to float unattached in the air as what is lit becomes visible and what isn’t, well, isn’t. While that may seem to carry some interesting appeal, the result doesn’t translate well in reality. The brain expects branches and leaves to be anchored by a tree trunk. With that in mind, remember that a good moon lighting application should, in most cases, include and up-lit tree trunk.
The dappled shadows of a moon lit tree falling on a path or seating area are beautiful. If you have the right tree in which to apply this technique and are willing to go through the effort, I highly recommend this as a wonderful landscape lighting application. Just be sure to be safe and recognize that professional help may be needed for this one.
Tags: landscape lighting, moon lighting, moon lit, tree
