For most of us, a yard is more than just some extra space tacked onto the back of our house. It’s a safe haven, where we can tend to our garden, socialize, and relax in tranquil, beautiful surroundings.
However, especially for those who are lucky enough to have large yards, lighting can become an issue once the sun goes down. Sitting on the decking isn’t quite as fun when it’s pitch black outside.
So, you have two choices. You can go inside when it gets dark, or you can highlight your beautiful yard with carefully chosen landscape lighting.
Depending on the size and features of your yard, you may need only a few simple lights. Let’s discuss how to choose what to highlight, and what types of yard lighting are best for you.
Choosing Features to Highlight
It’s easy to go overboard with landscape lighting. It’s better to adopt a “less is more” attitude to lighting up your yard. Yard lighting is more about highlighting features of your garden than anything else, so if you overlight, nothing will stand out.
So, the key is to prioritize the features you think should be emphasized. Let’s take a look at some popular features and how you can highlight them.
Yard features
This could include water features, statues, or any other kind of notable decoration. Focus on beauty spots in your yard. Feel free to experiment, since playing around with lights and shadows can give a yard a completely different look at night.
Pathways and driveways
While yard lighting is usually a decorative aspect, don’t overlook a safety element. Some lights can sit unobtrusively along pathways, steps, and driveways. This lights up traffic areas and means you can move safely around your garden at night.
Decking or patios
Chances are, the patio or decking area is where you’ll spend most of your time in the garden at night. Spotlights can work well to illuminate the area, but they can be a little too bright, and leave harsh shadows. Some flat lights can be built into the area around the borders of the decking or patio, giving a relaxing, low-level light.
Texture areas
Lights can add detail and texture to an area, for example, a stone wall. Setting lights at intervals along a wall can keep the area gently lit while highlighting the textured area of the wall. This can also be handy to illuminate signs.
There are endless possibilities of features and areas to light up in your yard. The goal is to get your yard to look completely different during the night.
Types of Lighting
Yard lighting can vary from soft, subtle fairy lights, to harsh spotlights. The amount of lighting and the kind you use will depend on the size, shape, and style of your yard. For example, if you have a large yard, you’ll need strong lights and you may need more of them.
You can use just one style of light, but it’s more common to use a variety.
Spotlights and floodlights
Especially if you have a large yard, spotlights provide a good way to illuminate a large section at once. Motion-activated spotlights can add an extra layer of security. Spotlights can also be trained onto a feature element, creating interesting silhouettes and shadows. They can also draw attention to a feature you’re particularly proud of.
Post or in-ground lighting
Ideal for lighting up driveways or pathways, these lights can be built into the path itself, or can easily be placed alongside.
Water feature lights
Submerged lights in a water feature are exceptionally popular. Water feature lights make the water look as if it’s glowing from the inside, and you can even use colored lights to give an ethereal effect.
Uplights, or accent lights
These types of light shine directly onto a feature, drawing the eye. You can use these types of light around decking or patios, but you can also use them to highlight your favorite garden features.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible lighting ideas. The age-old method of stringing fairy lights in trees and shrubs can give your yard a sparkling, mischievous look. However, if you’re planning to light up your yard with large-scale landscape lighting, you may want to consult a professional.
Properly setting up landscape lighting is very important, if you don’t want your lights to flicker and die halfway through a late-night barbeque! Professional landscape lighters can give you helpful advice and may even give you a preview. Remember, the reality of the lighting may look different from how you imagine it in your head.
Benefits of a Well-Lit Yard
A well-lit yard can greatly enhance the beauty of your garden. Aside from allowing you to spend more time in your yard, landscape lighting makes yard space safer. Highlighting paths and driveways is a sensible choice to prevent tripping, and motion-activated spotlights can be a huge deterrent for prospective intruders.
Of course, landscape lighting gives you the chance to express your individuality, allowing you to style your space in a way that suits your taste. You can add as much or as little lighting as you like. Now, sit back and enjoy your revamped yard!
