It never fails. You take a weekend stroll through your neighborhood, gazing right, and gazing left, and then you come across something that almost makes you stop in your tracks. It is the over illuminated front yard that qualifies to light the way for an airplane in its landing pattern. Here is how homeowners can limit their landscape lighting, yet still give it a dazzling nighttime impact.
When a homeowner decides to replace or add landscape lighting, they first have to make a choice of going with either the tried and true electrical low wattage varieties, or the more environmentally friendly solar powered selections.
Whatever the choice, before a homeowner even leaves the driveway to go shopping for lighting, they need to take a critical look at the yard they plan on lighting both during the day and at night. We will cover the reason why a little later. For now, let us first consider what our homeowner needs to account for prior to making the lighting purchase.
It is always a good idea to walk around your home, looking at any pathways, focal points, and entry ways you might want to illuminate. This is looking at your lighting needs from a macro point of view, or basically, an overview of what you want to light. Always avoid at this point trying to take a count of how many actual lights you will need. Your goal here is to mainly assess your overall lighting needs and desires. I say needs first, because you may have entry ways that for safety reasons need to be lighted, or pathways that also require a certain nighttime brightness to keep you and the family from falling in to the planter bed. Ouch! Any landscape lighting after that simply adds focal interest to the appearance of the home at night.
Once you have decided on your macro lighting needs, it is time to look at it from a micro point of view, or basically, take a finger count of how many lights you may need, and whether they will broadcast a downward spray of light, an upward light stream, or a combination of both. Note: You do not have to actually use your fingers to count, unless you use your toes as well. Try a pad of paper and pen. I guarantee it will be easier. Here is the key: Be cautious not to over illuminate your yard, for the benefit of your electricity bill if you go with electric lights, and because you do not want to go over the top with your lighting. For that matter, there is no need to. Your lighting should be subtle, yet add enough of an impact for safety reasons and to supply a nice glow to your property overall at night. You will appreciate the results, and so will your neighbors.
We finally come to the reason for assessing your needs both at night and during the day. You need to remember that not only does your lighting serve a purpose, but it also becomes an intricate part of your landscaping decor. That is unless you have an incredible knack for camouflaging it from view. Be sure to take that in to account and remember that most of it will be in view. Follow this pre-lighting assessment and you are sure to make the right landscape lighting choices. Happy lighting!