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Good landscape lighting gives your garden a second life after dark. The secret isn't lighting everything: it's lighting a few chosen features well and leaving the rest in soft shadow. That contrast is what creates depth and drama.
SHOP OUTDOOR LIGHTING
Pick your focal points first
Choose two or three features worth showing off, such as a specimen tree, a sculpture or a textured wall. Before you buy, walk the garden at night with a torch and try lighting each one from different angles, to see what looks best.
Uplight your trees
Place a floodlight or spike light at the base of the tree, about 30cm to 60cm from the trunk, and angle it up into the branches. The light picks out the bark and fills the canopy from below. A single light can make a large tree look flat, so use two or three from different sides.
Coloured light is a great way to add interest and colour to your garden at night. Natural colours like green or blue work particularly well.
Get the brightness right
Shrubs and smaller features don't need much light, but a large tree needs more. Too much light on something small spills off it and makes everything around it too bright. Too much light on a tree that doesn't need it simply spills into the sky and is wasted.
Try moonlighting
Fix a shielded, wide-beam light high in a mature tree and aim it down through the branches. It throws soft, dappled shadows onto the lawn or patio below, like moonlight, and lights a wide area without any visible glare.
Graze, silhouette and shadow
- Grazing: Place a light 15cm to 25cm from a stone wall or textured trunk and aim it almost straight up, so every ridge and crack casts its own shadow.
- Silhouette: Put the light behind a plant or sculpture and aim it at a wall, so only its outline shows, crisp and dramatic.
- Shadowing: Put the light in front and aim it at a wall behind, and watch a small plant become a giant, moody shadow.
Choose a warm light colour
Warm white (2700K to 3000K) suits most gardens. Go even warmer (2200K to 2700K) for a candlelit feel. Coloured lights add interest and whimsy.
READ OUR LIGHT COLOUR ADVICE
Keep glare down
Hide the fittings in the planting, and choose fittings with cowls or hoods so you see the effect, not the light. Aim lights away from windows, paths and your neighbours' property.
Plan for growth
Leave a loop of spare cable at each light, so you can move or re-aim it without digging. As plants grow, check and re-aim your lights about once a year.
