Adding Hours Of
Night time Enjoyment To Your Landscape
Landscaping shouldn't be relegated to enjoyment during daylight hours only. By
using low voltage landscape lighting for nightscaping. People passing by and
homeowners alike can indulge themselves in the visual delights of your lawn and
landscape after dark.
Nightscaping utilizes strategically placed low-voltage landscape lighting to
enhance and highlight portions of the home, trees, yard, or other aspects of
your hardscape. Lighting choices may be as simple as a row of solar-powered path
lights to a collection of spot and flood lighting enveloping the geyserlike gush
of a water feature. Nightscaping can also add safety and security to a home,
ensuring that areas of the yard or garden aren't left in shadow and that the
perimeter of the home is well-lit.
Lighting comes in a variety of styles – classic, modern, Asian and some, like
the frog that lights up, defies classification.
Copper,
verdigris and black or grey enameled metals are some of the most popular
materials used for spot or flood-lighting. Some lights are designed to have
their bodies buried, with the light flush with ground level. These lights can be
used in mulch beds or embedded into pathways. There are also lights for
underwater use that are sunk into water features and fountains. Many times,
these will have filters colored amber, blue, or green to further embellish the
water being lighted. There is a lighted birdbath available (solar or
electrified) for use as a special garden accent as well. Quite a few companies
offer extensive collections of low voltage landscape lighting. Some are
available in big box home improvement stores while others are available only to
lawn care and landscape professional.
Spotlighting is most often used to showcase a specimen planting or piece of
artwork. Spotlights can be mounted on hardscaping, such as a retaining wall or
the exterior of the house, or on the trunk of an adjoining tree. Floodlighting
can be used to focus attention on large expanses, such as an attractive wall,
grotto or garden room. Water features can be lit either from under the water or
above, and the water
quality will dictate which choice is best. The murky water that is often found
in koi ponds or natural ponds is best lit from above, as top lighting helps
disguise the less-than-pristine state of the water.
Ideally, installation of professional low voltage landscape lighting should be
done by a qualified electrician or landscape architect rather than on a
do-it-yourself basis. Electrical wiring (either direct bury or in conduit) are
buried underground, connected to the household power supply and stepped-down
with a transformer.
Lights will be
positioned at specific angles in order to highlight the features important to a
homeowner and create an aesthetic display overall.
This year, be delighted! Look into nightscaping as a way to refresh your
landscape.
Click
Here To Get The Nightscaping - Low Voltage Lighting Article As a Printer Friendly PDF.