The Good and Bad in Choosing Landscape Lighting Kits
Posted by Landscaper | Filed under Planning Outside Lighting, landscape lighting kits
If you’ve considered outdoor garden lighting but have balked at the cost of having a professional do the work, there is an option that requires only minimal tools and expertise to get the job done. Landscape lighting kits offer an accessible option at a reasonable price for those of us who don’t live in mansions but still want to beautifully illuminate the hard work we’ve put into our modest gardens.
While you may be able to accomplish your goals with a landscape lighting kit, they are neither a fool proof nor perfect solution for all people and all settings. The do-it-yourself approach comes with problems of its own and kits have their limitations. Today’s post will hopefully help guide you through your decision so you can draw an informed conclusion about whether or not a kit is the best option for you.
Clearly the greatest advantage of using a landscape lighting kit is realized in terms of cost savings. Kits can hit some remarkably low prices. One example is a 14 piece light set made by Malibu and available on Amazon for a paltry $52! At those prices you’d almost think yourself foolish NOT to buy it. But before you make the leap, read on.
The cost benefits of kits exist for two reasons. The first is that you do all the work. Rather than having a landscaping professional charge you a sometimes painful amount for the work, you need very minimal skill in electrical work and tool use to get these things in the ground. That said, you will still be investing several hours of your time to get things done. That’s fine if you’re pulling in a middle class income or less, but a well paid lawyer or consultant might actually save more having a pro do the work.
The second (and more important) reason an outdoor lighting kit might cost so little sometimes results in a big disappointment for the consumer. To keep costs down, those super inexpensive lighting kits are made of plastic. That in itself isn’t so bad, but plastic doesn’t respond well to high temperatures. That means the bulbs in those plastic lights have to be relatively low watt bulbs in the range of 20 Watts (for spotlights) or 10 to 15 Watt (for accent lights).
Are low wattage bulbs really such a bad thing? Well, that depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If your goal is to define a border, like along a path, for safety then a low watt light kit is perfectly acceptable. The pools of light cast by these bulbs will be fairly anemic, though, providing less in terms of illumination than you might hope. Essentially, the light itself becomes a beacon of demarcation rather than the fairly inadequate pool of light it will cast.
The 20 Watt spotlights might be fine for illuminating relatively small specimen plants and, used correctly with the background in fairly close proximity, may even allow you to pull of some shadowing effects. Likewise, you can probably uplight smaller tree trunks though you may need to double up on the spotlights to do so. You’ll certainly be hard pressed to effectively uplight the branches of larger trees. Incidentally, we’ll speak a bit more about outdoor tree lights in our next post.
An additional down side is that you’re very limited in style with a kit. You’ll receive a set of one or two different kinds of lights. Generally you’ll get a standard set of post lights for borders and/or a few spotlights. Should you subsequently deem a spot to be better served by recessed lighting or prefer another style entirely, you’re back to square one. There isn’t a lot in the way of creative freedom.
Sounds a little grim so far, but stick with me. My intent here isn’t to turn you off to the idea of inexpensive landscape lighting kits, but to manage your expectations a little. There are certainly upsides to these kits such as, as already mentioned, affordability. I’m even willing to give credit for their plastic construction. Wait, didn’t I just condemn these lights for their plastic construction? Well, yes, because of the low wattage element. But there is a plus.
Plastic landscaping lights may be cheap to construct, but they’re surprisingly tough and durable. In addition, the designs are all but indistinguishable from metal models at night without very close inspection. Another great point is that landscaping lights are subject to all kinds of abuse from people tripping on them to damage from lawnmowers and weathering. Replacing a single metal light can be an expensive proposition. Replacing a single plastic light is a whole other matter and very cost effective.
Ease of installation is another feature you just can’t beat with landscape lighting kits. A few simple tools, a bare-minimum understanding of electrical work and you’re pretty much good to go. Do your research ahead of time, though, to ensure you have everything you need to get the job done.
A final perk with lighting kits is that they allow you entry into what would otherwise be a fairly expensive hobby. For a fairly low cost, you can experiment with placement and approaches to find what you like best and scale up from there.
There are some other issues we could discuss (both in favor and against) but the key is simply this. Know what you’re getting and what your limitations will be. For some of you, inexpensive garden lighting kits will be the perfect fit. Others, with grander ambitions or property to light will be better served by a professional solution or by piecing together their own set of lights that fit their specific needs.
Tags: garden lighting kits, landscape lighting, landscape lighting kits, landscaping lights, lighting kits, outdoor lighting kit, Outdoor Tree Lights
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
