Illuminating your landscape brings atmosphere to every occasion. It’s a great way to make visitors, family, and friends feel welcomed. You can place landscape lighting along your walkways, in gathering spots, and with key landscape features. This helps you add beauty and function to your yard. However, picking the right lighting for your landscape’s style and climate can be a challenge. Let our experts help you make the right choice!
Why Should I Add Landscape Lighting To My Lawn?
Adding light to your lawn does more than just add safety to your outdoor fun. It’s convenient to have well-lit walkways and lights around your front door. But landscape lighting goes beyond this. Brightening up your landscape allows you to enjoy the outdoors well into the evening.
However, in the case of landscape lighting, less can be more. While it can be tempting to light up every detail and tree, this can overpower the natural beauty of your yard. It can also potentially raise your power bill more than you expect!
Landscape lighting is a chance to highlight features that may not stand out during the day. A simply trimmed bush can become a soft glowing centerpiece of your gathering space. Lights strung along a wall can help draw the eye toward gardens, patios, or outdoor kitchens. Not only is landscape lighting a practical matter, but it’s another chance to use your creativity to decorate your outdoor space!
What Types Of Landscape Lighting Work Best?
There are plenty of different types of light fixtures you can implement into your landscape. However, keep in mind that the main idea of landscape lighting is to see the light rather than the light fixture. This means hiding your lighting in a variety of creative ways. Spotlights and floodlights are popular choices. They are often used to illuminate water features, walls, and other landscape fixtures. Inground lighting is a popular choice for gardens and walkways. For a more striking feature, landscape lighting fixed to posts or poles can illuminate a large area.
Path lighting, however, is unique among landscape lighting. Many homeowners choose fixtures to line their path to be decorative. There are a variety of styles of path fixtures, from the small and modern to fence-post lanterns. These can add a classic touch. Look through catalogs, online photos, and even your own neighborhood for inspiration!
Where Can I Creatively Hide Lighting In My Yard?
Depending on what type of light fixtures you choose for your landscape, there are many ways you can hide your lighting. Placing light hidden within trees and bushes is a popular choice. Another common way of hiding lighting is to use floodlights behind rocks or dense shrubs. This allows the light to point outward, making for dramatic shadow effects. Sinking lights into the ground or flower beds is another creative way to hide your landscape lighting.
Another way to hide lighting in your yard is by your garden. Many lighting fixtures made these days can accent a flower garden or walkway. This includes lighting fixtures that may look more like sculptures. Oftentimes, birds and butterflies are popular muses. If your garden includes an arbor or trellises, you can hide lighting in these as well!
Remember, however, that it isn’t necessary to hide all the lighting in your yard. Having lights that stand out will draw people to the area at night. This is perfect if you’re trying to illuminate the best hang-out spot in your backyard!
Tips For Choosing Your Landscape Lighting
When considering what type of landscape lighting you’d like and where you should place it, keep function in mind. If you neglect to light your main walkway in favor of illuminating your rose bushes, you may end up unhappy. Focus on areas of your landscape where you find joy during the day. Look for places where there is potential to play with light at night. A few lights focused on your backyard patio can make all the difference during late afternoon gatherings. Instead of needing to bring the party inside, you can enjoy a crisp late summer evening outside beneath the lights.
Regardless of whether you chose to display or hide your landscape lighting fixtures, our team at Gade Masonry can help you make the right choice! We’ll work with you to find the right spot for a dramatic lighting centerpiece, the right type of fixtures for your front walkway, and the number of lights that would work best for your yard. We know what it takes to give a landscape curb appeal, even at night. Get in touch with our team today to see how we can help you illuminate your yard!