Garden lighting, often underestimated, is actually one of the key points for making your outdoor space safe, fascinating and able to give beautiful sensations even after sunset.
How to illuminate the garden to enhance it
Before dedicating yourself to the spotlight and lamp shop, however, it is good that various circumstances are analyzed for the lighting of your garden, such as:
- The shape of the spaces
- The presence of obstacles such as plants, trees, benches, walls
- The style we want to give it
- The way we think the garden is used
Once you have clarified your ideas on these points then you can move on to the actual lighting design, customizing it according to your needs.
The intensity of the garden lights
Until several years ago, a widespread practice was to give light - and therefore attention - to only a part of the garden, which usually corresponded to the most used one, leaving the rest completely in the dark.
This wrong practice prevented the full and correct use of spaces with high potential especially on special occasions.
The decision to light up only a part of the garden lay in the need to contain energy costs on the domestic bill, this was because there were no LED lamps or other energy-saving lighting systems yet.
Today these systems allow not only to save considerably on the costs of energy used for outdoor lighting but are also capable of creating a homogeneous intensity with no more dark areas.
The arrangement of garden lights
When thinking about how to arrange your lights in the garden, you must always consider two aspects:
- Functional
- Scenic
The functional aspect is useful for illuminating the essential parts of the garden, such as the driveway, the front door, and any steps and stairs.
This aspect is important as it will guide us and our guests even late at night without incident on the way from the entrance to the front door.
The scenographic aspect, on the other hand, focuses on a type of lighting that highlights some particular aspects of the garden, such as a plant or a decorated wall, or a fountain.
For the lighting of very large areas, an excellent solution are the street lamps, which will be lower, with the light closer to the ground, if you want to create a more intimate environment. Low streetlights also avoid light scattering, better marking the boundaries between lights and shadows.
Another possibility is offered by picket lights, which can enhance trees and hedges or illuminate the paths to be traveled; in the latter case, it is better for the light to be directed towards the ground, to avoid dazzling and to better illuminate the path.
It is important that the materials chosen to light up the garden are all specifically for outdoor use, to resist corrosion, atmospheric agents and humidity.
Garden lighting for your safety
Finally, we remind you that the right lighting in the garden can also be useful in making this space safer, creating different settings and atmospheres, but without leaving any corner completely in the dark.
For safety reasons, it would be better if the lights on the door and on the passageway were always on, at most with an intensity that decreases when no one passes and increases when some presence is detected.
If the house has a rear façade, this should always be illuminated with a fixed beam of light.
