Outdoor Garden Lighting Techniques, Part 2

Last time in the third article on garden and patio lights (and the first part of this sub series on lighting techniques), we talked about outdoor lighting for safety and security. We also discussed the need for brighter area lighting for high traffic areas, and those parts of your garden or backyard where you plan to hold group activities.
This time out we continue our discussion of lighting techniques beginning with:

Using down lighting in your garden

The idea was down lighting is simple. You highlight a feature or aspect of your landscape by shining light down upon it from above. There were any numbers of different effects that can be achieved with this technique. To show you what I mean stop and consider the differences between a small water feature illuminated with a single downward facing floodlight and the same feature illuminated with several smaller lights.

Now consider those smaller lights placed in different trees, at different heights and maybe even with different color bulbs. As you can see, you can use down lighting to literally paint a landscape or feature with light. Your only limit here is going to be your own imagination. A word of caution though -- it's best not to get too fancy, especially if the effect you achieve does not fit in a cohesive manner with the lighting throughout the rest of your garden.

Up lighting -- the opposite of down lighting

Up lighting of course, means lighting something from beneath. You can use up lighting to place an object or plant in silhouette by placing the light behind it. You can also use it as a formal security lighting by placing it between a hedgerow in the side of a building, or as safety lighting placing it underneath a planting next to a path, for an effect that is both dramatic and useful.

We don't want to be too specific, so let's use that diffuse lighting

Use diffuse lighting to highlight an area, but not so much. In other words, we use this form of lighting to give an area, a planting or a garden feature a glow. We can achieve diffuse lighting in a number of ways. You can use a plant itself to create diffuse lighting by putting the light source within a hedge or behind it. The kind of cover that fits over the lighting source can also create a diffuse effect. For larger installations, a frosted plastic panel or a piece of canvas or other cloth can be used. As with all of the more artistic lighting techniques, it is best used as sparingly and only in a way that complements the rest of your garden lighting.

“Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!” -- Spotlights

Uses spotlights to very clearly and emphatically pick out a particular garden feature or planting. This is an effect that's very very easy to overdo so use it sparingly. As with most of the other effects, with the exception of diffuse lighting, this can also be used to enhance safety and security in your home and garden. I do want to caution you however that if you do use spotlighting to use small spots. It does not matter how attractive the particular shrub, statue or water feature is -- if it is so brightly lit that it overpowers the rest of the space the overall effect will be unattractive.

Lighting of a different dialect

Accent lighting is normally accomplished using small fixtures, and unusual placements to pull an interesting garden object out of its background. This is an area where color can be a real help. If you are going to try this, make sure that the color you use complements the foliage throughout the growing year. The rose-colored light under your azaleas may look fine in the winter. But when springtime comes and they are a riot of pink and red a similarly colored light will look overdone and harsh.

Send in the reinforcements! Were caught in a crossfire!

Crisscross lighting can be used to create special effects in your nighttime garden. You can use this to simulate natural light like moonlight from one angle while providing a more focused and brighter spotlight effect from another. It can be particularly effective as a way to softly light a larger area while providing accent lighting to a favorite focal point. Normally, you would use more diffuse lighting to achieve this. You might want to use outdoor string patio lights. Crossed spotlights or floodlights will look harsh, and make your garden appear similar to a used-car lot.

Get the silhouette yet? You bet!

If you have an arrangement in your garden that gives you the opportunity to silhouette and interestingly shaped planting or statue against a wall or other vertical surface you should strongly consider using silhouette lighting. If you do this hide the light fixture itself. A silhouette is a dramatic and artistic effect and should be used sparingly to avoid overpowering the rest of your garden.

Fill 'er up – Fill Lighting for open areas.

Fill lighting will help you to properly highlight areas of the garden that will be heavily trafficked and used for gatherings. Bear in mind that this does not mean that that open space you have reserved for Sally's wedding reception needs to look like the surface of the sun. You just want people to be able to move about that given area without tripping over a ceramic frog. Fill lighting also provides great content contrast for the brightly lit focal points in your garden as well as the unlit darker portions. The nice thing about fill lighting is that you can use low voltage energy efficient lights for this, and much of the time free energy solar lighting will be sufficient.

Thanks for staying with me through a long article! This is the end of part four in our garden lighting series, and part two of this section of lighting techniques.

Next time we'll finish up our discussion of lighting techniques with a look at perspective and vista lighting. We will also delve into my favorite part of designing garden lighting -- the use of color.