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
8-piece Malibu Landscape Lighting Kit Step by Step Installation Instructions
Posted by Kathleen | Filed under Installation Guides, landscape lighting kits
If you’ve been following the progression of my working weekend adventure you should now know how I got suckered into installing landscape lights and what to do to prepare for landscape lighting installation. Today is the day we get the actual step by step directions out of the way but let’s recap briefly on what you should do before you begin and some new considerations not already mentioned.
As mentioned in our previous post, plan your layout. Don’t just factor in the functional lighting you want around borders, but also pick the special items you want to spotlight. This can be a statue, ornamental plants, trees, etc. Remember you can backlight plants for great silhouettes or light them from the front to cast dramatic shadows against walls.
Once you know were you’ll stick your lights in the ground, plan how you want to run the low voltage cable. Allow a little slack between lights for changes, additions or adjustments later. While you’re at it, decide if you want to bury the cable or cover it with mulch. Burying the cable will mean more work and I’d suggest you dig the trench before moving forward. Also remember that you’ll want about 12 inches of leftover cable at the end of your light run.
Decide where you’ll hang the power pack. Make sure the mount point is close enough to your gfi for the power cord to reach. If the transformer has a photoreceptor (the Malibu 8301-9907-08 8 Piece Metal Tier Light Kit includes a power pack with this technology) then you should mount the power pack so that it properly detects the ambient light. If you mount it in a heavily shaded area, your lights might come on earlier than you’d like.
What you'll find in the box
I think about covers the initial considerations. Let’s get to the good stuff.
The 8 piece landscape lighting kit includes all of the items you see pictured above, but here’s an itemized list.
- 6 tier lights
- 6 stems
- 6 center ring dividers (for the tier lights) which should already be on the light but loose
- 6 caps (for the top of the tier lights)
- 6 stakes (to stick the lights into the ground)
- 2 spotlights
- 1 power pack
- 1 75′ low-voltage cable
CAUTION: Do NOT touch the bulbs of the lights during any of the following steps. The oils on your fingers can cause the bulbs to burst when they turn on.
Step 1 – Start by assembling your tier lights. To do so, install the center ring which you can mount high or low depending on how you want the light to cast. The ring has notches that allow it to slide up or down through the beveled exterior of the light. A simple twist locks them in place.
Step 2 – Attach the cap to the top of the tier light. This is another simple step. Just place it on top and twist to secure.
Step 3 – The light stems are in two parts. If you want to take advantage of the full height available, combine the two pieces. If you want a lower profile, leave these disconnected.
Step 4 – Insert the stem into the bottom of the light. Be careful here. If you attempt to force it too strongly you might break the plastic insert area. Also, do a good job of lining everything up so the top of the light doesn’t sit crooked on the stem.
Step 5 – Finally, insert the plastic stake into the bottom of the stem. There’s a notch cut in the stake through which the wiring should run.
While you’re going through the process of assembling the tier lights, take a look at the wiring. You’ll notice the ends of the wires have a black clip and a gray clip. You don’t need to do anything with them now but what you should understand is that these are the sections that attach to the low voltage cable you’ll lay down later. Each of these clips has a little metal “tooth” and when you clip the two parts together with the low-voltage cable in between, these “teeth” each penetrate the plastic sheathing of the low-voltage cable to make contact with the copper wire inside.
It’s a very simple and easy way of connecting the lights to the cable and will make more sense when we get to that step. I just wanted to interject it here since you’re already working with the lights. Let’s move on.
Step 6 – Unspool the 75′ low-voltage cable. You’ll notice one end has a rubber cap and the other end has already been clipped to expose the two copper wires inside (the clipped ends may still have the rubber sheathing loosely attached. Just slip the clipped rubber off the ends and you’re ready to move on to the next step).
Step 7 – Flip the power pack over and you’ll see two screws. Simply insert one of the copper wires from the low-voltage cable under one of the plates and tighten the screw. Repeat this with the second wire under the second screw and plate. You might need to loosen each of the screws to get the wire under the plates. The picture to the left should give you an idea of what the end result should look like.
Step 8 – Mount the power pack near your gfi outlet. Remember to keep the power pack at least 12 inches off the ground. Depending on the model transformer you have, you’ll need one or two screws to hang it. For the landscape lighting kit we used, one screw was all that was required. Rick’s home is an all brick town home so we used a masonry screw to mount our power pack. We’d already tested the layout and knew the transformer would be mounted close enough to the gfi for the plug to reach.
IMPORTANT: Do NOT plug the power pack into the gfi socket yet. You will do so only after all the lights are connected to the low-voltage cable.
Step 9 – Once mounted, run out the low-voltage cable along the route you planned for your lights. If you want to bury the cable, dig your trench first and then follow this step. If you plan to simply cover the cable with mulch, just loosely run it along the path you planned.
Step 10 – With the low-voltage cable loosely run, insert each of the lights into the ground. It’s very important that you loosen the soil first. You can do so by saturating the spot with water or by loosening the dirt with a trowel. When you push the light into the ground, be sure to push from the thumb tab at the top of the stake and not from the metal light stem or light top or you might break the stake. Take a look at each light from different angles to make sure they aren’t leaning in one direction or another. Leaning won’t hamper operation but will detract from aesthetics.
Intermission: Speaking of aesthetics, if you have spotlights in your kit, this is where their placement comes into play. Rick’s kit included two spotlights and we decided during our planning stage how we wanted to use each one. The first spotlight would uplight a small palm so that its shadow would spread dramatically along their privacy fence at night. The second spotlight near the end of the run would serve to uplight the tree in their garden, bathing the trunk and the leaves above in warm light.
I’ve written plenty about aesthetic considerations and techniques in past posts so I won’t go into much detail here but, if you have spotlights, these are what will really help you beautify your garden. Take the time to plan ahead and adjust accordingly. Now back to the instructions.
Step 11 – Connect each light to the low-voltage cable. Remember you have a black and gray clip at the end of the wire coming from the light and that your low-voltage cable is actually made up of two parallel cables. You want to clip the two clips together with the low-voltage cable in between so that the tooth from one clip punctures one side of the low-voltage cable and the tooth from the other clip punctures the other side.
You may find yourself skeptical that the tooth has actually punctured the cable. If the black and gray clips have joined together properly, you’re probably ok. Rick wanted to take them apart and try again with each light but I assured him it was easier than he thought. It really doesn’t take much penetration to make contact. Don’t dwell on it too much. You’ll know at the end when you turn the lights on to test if it all worked out.
Reminder: Remember that you should have 12 inches of spare cable at the end of your run.
Step 12 – You might be tempted to bury your low-voltage cable or cover it with mulch at this stage. Don’t. If any of your lights didn’t clip well enough, you’ll need to try reconnecting them. So step 12 is to actually test your lights. Plug your power pack into your gfi outlet and turn turn its selector knob to the on position. Verify that each of the lights in your run comes on. If one doesn’t power on, unplug the power pack and check the black and gray clips. Verify that they are properly connected and that the metal teeth appear to penetrate the low voltage cable. Try pushing the clips together a bit tighter and plug in the power pack again. Does it light?
If everything seems to be in order but the bulb still doesn’t light up, unplug the power pack again and then try replacing the bulb in the failed light. If that still doesn’t work, unplug the power pack again and then disconnect the light entirely from the low voltage cable. Inspect the metal teeth and verify they aren’t bent or broken. If they are, time to take the light back to the store.
Step 13 – If everything works to your expectations, bury your low-voltage cable or cover it with mulch. You can also do a preliminary adjustment on your spotlights at this stage but you’ll be better off waiting until the Sun goes down to get a real feel for the end results.
Step 14 – Turn the selector knob on your power pack to the setting you’d like. With the Malibu kit we used, the options are on, off, auto, 4hr, 6hr or 8hr. On and Off are just that. Auto turns the light on at night and off again in the morning. The hour settings turn the light on automatically when it gets dark and off again after the set hours have elapsed.
Step 15 – ENJOY!
Ok, it took 15 steps to write up these instructions for installing a Malibu landscape lighting kit. But, let’s be honest, these are all easy steps. Installing the lights in Rick and Eryn’s garden took between 1 and 2 hours but, truth told, a LOT of that was time wasted chatting and goofing off. As a beginner, you’ll probably do fine estimating about 2 hours for an 8 light set which includes the minimal assembly the lights require.
Eryn and Rick opted to leave one light out for now. They’ll take the time to consider where they want it later and add it into the mix. But they absolutely loved the look of the uplit palm shadow on their fence and they’ve decided they really want to get another palm and another spotlight to add to the string so that they can paint their entire privacy fence with palm shadows.
The power pack with their kit is a 150 watt transformer. The bulbs they’ve used add up to only 75 watts. Add in the missing light and they’ll have used only 82 watts out of the potential 150. That gives them ample leftover wattage for up to two more 20 watt spotlights.
There you have it, folks. Simple step by step instructions for how to install a Malibu landscape lighting kit. Have fun and be safe.
Tags: how to install a Malibu landscape lighting kit, installing landscape lights, landscape lighting installation, landscape lighting kit, malibu landscape lighting, step by step instructions
