Light Up Your Garden

Monday, 21 June 2021

There’s nothing quite like long, sunny days lazing in the garden. But what happens when the sun goes down? Garden lighting can add a whole new dimension to your garden, allowing you to use it for longer, move safely around it in the dark and enjoy looking out onto it from indoors. In this blog, we share some of our tips on how to light up your garden.

Garden lighting can bring your garden to life at night (A Sculpture Garden )

1. Landscape Lighting

For us, this is the key part of garden lighting. There are LOTS of styles to choose from and it all comes down to personal taste and what style suits the style of your garden. But what they do is as important as what they look like…

1a. Uplighters

We always recommend adding uplighters into a gardening scheme. They are often used to highlight feature trees and shrubs around the garden. Sometimes they are hidden amongst herbaceous providing a glow within borders. Often they are used to highlight focal points around the garden such as sculptures and water features.

Uplighters beside water features look effective and light up your garden

Uplighters beside a water feature and raised bed looks effective at night (A Garden With A View)

1b. Post or Bollard Lights

Post lights can be a wonderful way to help you navigate around the garden. Think about where you want to locate these – avoid putting them in lawn or they will get damaged when you cut the grass. They can look lovely positioned in borders at the side of a path, nestled amongst planting to add to the soft glow of the garden.

Post lights are a great way to light a path (A Contemporary Wildlife Garden)

1c Wall/Fence Lights

Downlighters or brick lights on walls and fences are a great way to add interest around the garden in the evening. These can be shining down onto garden art or planting and can create a lovely glow to the perimeter of the garden. They can be used in rendered raised beds to great effect too.

Brick lights set into raised beds looks amazing and light up your garden

Brick lights set into raised beds looks amazing (A Contemporary Day And Night Garden)

1d. Deck lights

Deck lights are popular and easy to fit. Small round recessed lights are a great way to add lighting but there are other options to add wow to your decking such as lights fitted into the steps or large glass blocks with brick lighting underneath for a more dramatic effect.

Add big lights to decking for dramatic effect (A Contemporary Wildlife Garden)

1e LED strip lights

These are a great way to add a WOW to your garden. They can run along steps, in water features, raised beds or sit at the bottom of rendered walls to add a wonderful effect after dark.

Adding strips of LEDs can look stunning like this garden we designed and built in Devon Village

2. Festival Lights

The big trend in garden lighting at the moment is festival lighting. These trendy fairy lights add a fizz of excitement to the garden and turn the evening into an event. Also, look at the wide variety of fairy lights on offer – from meteor showers to LED curtains there will be something to suit your style and budget. Think about where they will plug in and how they will be strung for full effect.

Festival lighting can add a real feel of excitement in the evening and light up your garden

Festival lighting can add a real feel of excitement in the evening (A Garden With A View)

3. Solar Lighting

Technology is constantly improving and the quality of solar lighting is better than it has ever been. Resist the urge to buy bargains in budget stores and splash out on better quality solar lights in order for them to give a decent effect and to last longer than one summer!

Good solar lighting can be an effective alternative (A Contemporary Wildlife Garden)

4. Coloured Lighting

Our favourite colour of lighting is always warm white in gardens as we feel it gives the nicest glow but colour can be used to great effect in gardens. Too many colours in a small garden can look too much though so restrict your choice for the best effect.

Coloured lighting should be considered carefully for the best effect (A Wildlife Friendly Garden)

5. Security Lighting

Not to be forgotten, security lighting is important in ensuring your home and garden are kept safe at night. Using a PIR can ensure it comes on at the right time and can be used to guide you safely to the door too.

Uplighting in planting creates a gorgeous glow (A Contemporary Wildlife Garden)

6. Smart Lights

As with so many parts of our lives these days, your garden lighting can also be controlled by your Alexa or a smartphone. They can also be set to come on at dusk for a certain amount of time, leaving you to just sit back and pour another drink!

At Vialii, we can help you design your garden lighting scheme so that you get the most out of your garden day AND night! Please get in touch for more information on how you can light up your garden.

Vialii