With strategically placed landscape lighting, you can put on display all the best features of your garden and create a welcoming ambience. Which lights to choose and where to place them?
Create A Map
Create a detailed map of your property, including your home, pathways, trees, and key landscape features. Consider the areas you want to highlight and the effects you want to achieve to make the right choice of the lamps and their positions.
Light Different Areas
In different areas, you can achieve various effects by adding lights here and there.
Front Yard
The lighting present in the front yard can serve to accentuate the plantings in the yard, and also to provide illumination for those who will be walking from the street or driveway to the front door.
Walkways
Walkways are critical spaces in terms of task and safety lighting. You want to illuminate walkways enough to enable users to safely navigate the space, and also to enable people to take out the trash, deliver boxes, etc. safely.
Backyard
Floodlighting can be helpful to enable kids to play later in the evening, and ambient lighting can help create a great mood. Task lighting can be helpful for those who need to get work done in the yard, such as composting and gardening.
Choose From Various Types Of Outdoor Lighting
Garden Lights
Garden lights are versatile fixtures typically mounted on 18- to 24-inch posts, specifically designed to illuminate planting beds and can also serve as pathway markers. They are often decorative, with their style and finish visible as part of the overall landscape design. These lights are great for creating a soft, welcoming glow along garden paths or highlighting the edges of planting areas.
Mushroom-shaped lights will not only become part of your landscape but will also add a magical touch if you want to.
This round lamp is placed into the garden bed under the tree, and it's a very fresh and modern idea to try.
These elegang garden lamps are classics, they are placed along the fence in the plants to illuminate the space.
Various plant-inspired light designs are a great idea as they will instantly become part of the landscape.
Classic garden lamps can be hidden among the plants and they won't spoil the landscape. (via gardenstudiodesign).
Such small garden lamps won't be too much in your face but will give enough light.
Sphere garden lamps repeat the shape of the topiaries and don't spoil the style of the space.
These jaw-dropping flower-inspired lights will easily become part of your landscape that wows.
These modern garden lights are designed sleek and comfy in using, and the shape won't let rain or snow get inside them.
These lovely lamps repeat the shape of the grass becoming a cohesive part of the landscape.
Soft dimming spheres will be a creative idea for any garden or outdoor space.
Modern dimming lights can be used both indoors and outdoors and they are easy to place in any nook of your garden.
Bullet Lights
Bullet lights are compact fixtures often used with narrow-beam bulbs. They’re great for precise lighting of specific features like house details, tree trunks, or garden structures. Their focused beam allows for dramatic highlighting of key elements in your landscape. These lights are ideal for creating contrast and depth in your lighting design.
A spotlight in the blooms will show off your favorite flowers or just plants.
These garden lamp placed under the trees and along the fence give much light and accent the features.
Small bullet lights are always a good idea for a modern space, they will highlight anything you want.
A bullet light is a timeless idea for a garden, with it you can highlight any feature you want.
The narrow garden bed along the fence includes blooming trees, topiaries and bullet lights.
A little bit of bullet lights can add much appeal to your garden and make it welcoming.
Bullet lights placed along the fence illuminate the whole space and highlight some plants at the same time.
A couple of bullet lights placed in the garden bed will make the plants better seen.
Bullet lights are illuminating trees, the landscape is highlighted and the garden gets more curb appeal.
This lamp under the tree accents the plant and illuminates the corner of the garden.
Well Lights
Well lights are installed in the ground with the bulb housed in a waterproof casing. They provide illumination without the fixture itself being visible, making them perfect for uplighting the underside of plant foliage or grazing the base of walls and facades. Well lights are excellent for creating dramatic effects and highlighting textural elements in your landscape.
Strategically placed well lights accent some plants and create a welcoming ambience with soft light.
The tree in the corner is spectacular and it's highlighted with a well light placed in the pebbles.
Lights among the plants both highlight them and add light to the walkway. (via finntage).
Dive well lights into the ground to make the garden more welcoming. (via gardenista).
Hide some well lights in the flower bed to accent the plants and make the walkway visible.
A huge and old tree is your garden deserves lights to illuminate it! Make it an outstanding feature in the garden.
Show off your living privacy fence adding well lights in the garden bed.
The plants in the gardne bed are accented with bullet lights, and LED stripes under the edge create an inviting ambience.
Well lights under the trees and in the path are great to light up the garden and make walkways safe and comfortable.
Put your plants on display placing well lights here and there and illuminating the garden.
Downlights
Downlights are typically mounted high in trees or on structures to cast light downward, mimicking natural moonlight. They’re often used to illuminate lawns, paths, or the tree’s own foliage. Downlights usually feature a long shroud around the bulb to eliminate side glare.
Downlights are great to attach to an exterior wall or a fence, and they will highlight the plants below.
Accent your favorite plant arrangements adding lowlights to the fence.
Downlights attached to the garden bed give much light and illuminate the space.
Downlights on the wall and well lights in the plants create a safe and comfortable for walking space.
LED Lights
LED lights can be integrated into garden beds, under and around them, you can highlight any trees, plants and features with them, and they withstand weather conditiions well.
LEDs hidden inside the garden bed turn all the plants into objects of art and light up the space.
The curved garden bed is accented with LED stripes that show off the unique shape and accent the plants.
LED in garden beds are my favorites: they aren't seem but they give a soft and dim light to the space.
Lit up planters are a unique solution for walkways, patios and terraces, these are a multifunctional solution.
Warmer light will create a more welcoming look but colder light will make them more dramatic.
The lawn is lined up with a garden bed, which is styled with LED stripes that highlights the modern style of the space. (via getyourgift).
Color Temperature Considerations
Color temperature affects the mood and appearance of your landscape lighting. For a warm, inviting atmosphere, look for bulbs with a color temperature around 2,700K to 3 000K. Cooler temperatures (4,000K and above) create a brighter, more moonlit effect but can appear harsh in some settings.
Take Care Of Fixtures
Clean fixtures regularly, check for damage inspecting fixtures, wires, and connections for signs of wear or damage, especially after severe weather. Keep plants from overgrowing and blocking lights or damaging wires. Periodically check and adjust light positioning to account for plant growth or changes in your landscape.