Seven tips to light up your home’s landscape and garden – The Advocate
Gumbo weather in Louisiana — that’s fall for the rest of the country — means yards filling up with hay bales, pumpkins, mums and crotons.
As our days get shorter and darkness comes sooner with the end of daylight saving time on Nov. 6, many homeowners begin to rely more on their outdoor lights in order to highlight holiday scenery plus tricky pathways and provide some security. But before powering up the floodlights, you might want to take a look at the variety of options on the particular market, and a good place to start is technology.
“Low voltage LED has changed the game, ” said Joseph King, owner of Landscape King inside Baton Rouge. “They don’t use a lot of watts. Whereas before, you’d have to calculate your own voltage drop, and now, as long mainly because you have a transformer that can sustain the amount of watts in your whole installation, it’s relatively easy. ”
He explained that small LED path lights use about two watts of electricity, an easy load on a small transformer that may handle up to 120 w. For do-it-yourselfers, there are low voltage LED scenery lighting kits available. Some offer color-changing light bulbs, which can be accessed by your phone, making lighting up for the particular holidays a breeze.
Uplights upon trees makes for a dramatic effect, according to Micky Manual of SiteOne Landscaping Supply.
“You can have holiday lighting in your landscape already to where it can be green and red for Christmas, or it can become orange for Halloween, or whatever, ” King said. “It’s the really fun thing to play with. I even installed it at my house. ”
The three main concerns of homeowners are security, safety and ambience, according to local landscape illumination experts. And there is a way to incorporate all of those aspects using the right amount of light that’s not too bright.
“Don’t overdo this, ” stated Mickey Guide, account manager at SiteOne Landscape Provide in Baton Rouge. “You don’t want it to look like an airport. You want to have a good balance associated with lighting. ”
“We try not to go too over the top with lighting, ” mentioned landscape architect Michael Percy, of CARBO Landscape Architect in Baton Rouge. “I think sometimes the temptation is in order to kind of overlight a project at night, plus things can start to look a bit artificial. So our approach will be, to exactly where we can, hide light so you do not see the light source. ”
Large oak trees are usually the highlight of numerous yards in south Louisiana and a great place to start with regard to illuminating in night. Manual said customers often are looking for ways to illuminate their oaks, “to bring life to their larger oak trees and shrubs that may have been there for years. ”
File photo. Lighting done well can give a yard the magical feel.
“We start with the trees, and if we’ve got pathways or even driveways, then we start thinking about how we can use that tree to get light down onto these elements therefore that people can see at night, ” Percy said.
Lights mounted in trees and shrubs shining downward mimic the particular glow of moonlight, casting shadows on the ground. But shadows can also play a part in the overall lighting plan, based on King.
“Sometimes you’re lighting something up such as plants up or a taller holly or some thing. If there’s a wall behind presently there, that’s going to cast light on the wall but also a shadow on the wall, and it’s a cool aesthetic, plus there’s a lot of things you may do to try out with it and get a few rewarding looks out of it, ” he said.
When it comes to safety, King suggests illuminating places within the yard where there is the “transition associated with slope, ” which includes actions, ramps or places that will can cause someone in order to trip and fall. Path lights are common go-tos for homeowners, but Percy suggested an unique option to lighting the particular way.
File picture of a New Orleans’ home’s backyard at twilight just as the lights within the pavers come upon, with spotlights around the murals.
“We try to avoid pathway lights, though, like running the particular lights straight down the pathway. Typically what happens is it kind of looks like a runway, and occasionally those lamps get knocked over, and they kind of look crooked. And your eye really picks up about that. You can hide the lights in trees plus hit this from that approach, ” he stated.
Trees, columns, statues, wall space, flower beds — anything in your own yard can shine from night. Outdoor living places and patios also become extensions of the home when the particular light is right.
“We love hanging out on our own back patio, ” Ruler said. “I possess a 2-year-old, and all the neighbors come over. It’s nice for them all to come over and hang out inside our backyard because during the night, everything’s lit up so the kids can kind associated with run plus play, and we can keep a better eye on them. ”
Lighting your home is not always an one-size-fits-all concept, yet having a game plan before installation is always a great idea.
“It’s all regarding what you are envisioning, ” Manual stated. “It’s really what you want in order to bring to life. ”