Turn on the lights – and extend the summer
As the evenings draw in, without making your garden look like the Blackpool illuminations, you can add some lighting that will allow you to sit out and enjoy it, extending the feeling of summer.
Lighting adds a completely different dimension to a garden, turning it into a magical place, using clear light or colour filters to completely change the atmosphere. Using different types of lamps and wattages you can create contrasts as they interact with surrounding shadows.
Trees and shrubs, grasses and borders, pathways and decking, rockeries and ponds can all be highlighted. The best features of your garden can dominate the night scene, dramatic when the back of the garden is lit, creating a 3-D effect.
You may have a water feature or a statue that would look good lit up. Stainless steel spike lights can illuminate the edge of a lawn, beside a path or terrace.
Candles and night lights are romantic but give a dim light, whereas a
terrace or patio can be properly lit for sitting out or eating.
If it’s a bit too cold for sitting outside, the illuminated garden can still be enjoyed inside, from a window. It can also provide security, with paths and drives lit.
Low-voltage, energy saving LED kits are easy to install that can be plugged into a pre-existing mains socket, and usually have smaller light fittings than mains electricity lighting, which is only necessary for lighting up large gardens or big trees.
A registered electrician must be used for all mains garden installations. Choose simple and robust fittings suitable for outdoors, waterproofed and protected where they may be damaged by gardening.
You can lessen the impact by positioning and aiming lights responsibly, and turning them off when not in use. The use of hoods over lights to direct downwards will reduce light pollution of the night sky.
Safety lighting is strong, and to be mainly used on car parking areas and drives. Choose whether to have a switch on and off light or a sensor powered light which
Tips for good garden lighting
just comes on when there is someone around.
Uplighting uses light at ground level directed above, not unlike a spotlight. Use this carefully and sparingly, picking out the features that could benefit most, such as tall trees.
Eye-level lighting creates a composite of silhouettes and more subtle degrees of shading. It is softer and more diffused than some other types of garden lighting.
If you are unsure about installing garden lighting, consult a garden designer. Some specialise in garden lighting.
For parties, strings of white or coloured lights are available in different shapes, such as stars, flowers or globes, to give a fun look. They are reasonably priced, and can be changed around whenever you want.
An alternative to electrically powered lighting is to use solar lighting, low in intensity, cheap and safe, giving off a soft glow that many people think is more suitable for garden use.
If you are worried about the effects of garden lighting on wildlife, then solar power would appeal to you. There are concerns about security lights temporarily blinding some animals, and may even attract them, as seems to be the case with frogs.
Garden birds are disturbed from sleep by sudden lighting and it can make them sing before dawn. There are other disruptions, to animal breeding cycles, even perhaps reducing the number of glow-worms that emit a low, greenish light to attract mates.
Bats, owls and night-flying moths can become disorientated by artificial lights.
Solar power will offset these problems for the wildlife around you, giving you enough light to enjoy the garden at night without adding too much glare.
But lighting in moderation will certainly add to your enjoyment of the garden, whether sitting out or looking out from the house. It will brighten up your garden at any time of year – and you only see the best of the garden, wherever you want to position it.
Country Gardener 41
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