LIGHTING UP YOUR LANDSCAPE: PART 2

In our last article, we talked about the different ways you can incorporate lighting into your landscaping design to enhance the look, visibility, and safety of your property. From illuminating your home’s façade, highlighting architectural focal points, and making walkways and driveways safer to brightening up your garden and lighting up trees and foliage, the right lighting can add aesthetic appeal, value, safety, and security to your home.

In this article, we’ll focus on the different kinds of lights you can incorporate into your landscaping. While there are many lighting options to choose from, here are just a few of the most popular:

 

Flood lighting

Flood lighting is probably the most high-intensity lighting you will use in your landscaping. It casts a wide beam and is meant to bathe a large area in light—like the façade of your home. Because flood lighting is so powerful, it should be used sparingly to not be overwhelming. Some flood light designs have a collar or shield that helps eliminate side glare and focus the beam onto the object you want to illuminate.

Bullet lighting

Bullet lights are the accent lights of landscaping. Small and versatile, some of them are shaped like a bullet—which is where the name comes from—but there they also come in a variety of shapes and designs. Bullet lights are effectively used as highlighters, drawing attention to interesting architectural features or hardscaping elements like fountains or statues.

Downlighting

Downlighting refers to lights that are positioned at a higher level pointing downward to illuminate what is below. Often affixed to trees, downlighting can be configured to shed light on foliage for an aesthetic effect, or on areas like walkways or paths that need to be well-lit for safety. When installing downlighting, consider using LED lights that minimize the frequency of having to use a ladder to access high or hard to reach areas for bulb replacement.

Inground lighting

Sometimes called well lighting or up-lighting, inground lighting is lighting that is housed in a weatherproof casing and installed in the ground so that it casts a beam upwards. Inground lighting has the advantage of being able to provide illumination for elements that are lower to the ground, like benches, shrubs, or the base of a façade—all while maintaining a very low profile. Oftentimes, the fixture itself is not even noticeable, as it is covered over by grass, gravel, or stone.

These are just a few of the many types and usages of lighting you can use to brighten and beautify your outdoor space. Talk with your trusted landscaping professional today about how to choose the ones that will work best to light up your home and garden!

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