Proper garden lighting with your own hands

An evening outside the city is a special time. Tired of righteous labors, summer residents gladly put aside all the gardening imperfections for tomorrow and make themselves comfortable to enjoy the coveted coolness and unhurried conversation with neighbors or relatives. Proper lighting of the garden will contribute to the completeness of sensations.

The presence of lighting will allow not only to sit with a cup of tea on the terrace. The light will give you the opportunity to go wandering along the garden paths, breathing in the special fragrant evening smells emitted by flowers, which is not safe to do in the dark. But garden lighting is not just a lamp suspended from a pear on a wire, but a whole project that needs to be created and implemented. How to do it yourself, we'll talk below.

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Functional garden lighting

The main idea of ​​​​creating functional lighting on the site is to make it safe to move around its territory during the dark period of the day. And for this, it will be necessary, first of all, to solve the issue of high-quality lighting of garden paths.

This means that it will be necessary to allocate not only the central alley, the passage from the gate to the porch, but also smaller paths leading to areas where the owners may need access in the evening, but garden lighting on each specific site will have to be in different ways. The entrance group, for example, is customarily decorated with tall pillar-shaped lanterns, which today can be found in a wide variety of styles, from hi-tech to vintage. You can see how each of the options looks in garden lighting in the photo.

Functional light should literally flood the entire neighborhood, but at the same time not cause inconvenience, so experts recommend that those who decide to work on garden lighting with their own hands take lampposts from 2 meters high for the design of the house landscape. Lower structures, 1.5 - 2 m high, are not very convenient, since their lamps will shine directly into people's eyes, and a blinded person is even worse oriented on the ground than in the dark. What kind of security is there!

Lighting on the garden plot is subject to any obstacles in its landscape:

• lifts;
• hollows;
• ladders;
• reservoirs.

The light on the stairs should focus on each step. To achieve this effect, spot-type lamps, as well as structures in the form of columns or tubes, will help. With their successful location, the object will not only be well lit, but will turn into a magical path leading into a fabulous distance. You will want to walk up such a ladder.

What lamps to use in garden lighting

“Of the modern options, perhaps the most correct lighting for the garden will be provided by LED lamps”

Usually, high-power incandescent lamps are placed in garden lighting lanterns, but since they require frequent replacement, many summer residents prefer halogen and gas-discharge counterparts to them. Such products have a more intense light emission with minimal energy costs. However, these modern solutions are not without drawbacks, so if you do your own garden lighting, you need to know and take them into account.

Gas-discharge types of lamps are not used where frequent switching on / off of lamps is required and in designs with motion sensors. Firstly, they need time to accelerate (that is, they do not ignite immediately, but gradually gaining power), and secondly, they are not ready for voltage drops. Halogens are too hot, so they should not be installed close to the plantings, unless you want the leaves of the trees to get burned or the plants to die completely. Of the modern options, perhaps the most correct lighting for the garden will be provided by LED lamps. Although they are more expensive, they are also noticeably more productive in terms of their capabilities, although the choice, of course, is yours.

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Decorative garden lighting

If functional lighting is mainly responsible for the safety of movement, then decorative lighting in the garden creates a special atmosphere on it. It is never bright. This is a game of highlights, shadows, tones. In this way, they stand out:

1. Original types of trees.

2.​ Interesting landscape solutions.

3. Garden sculptures.

Accompanying lighting is provided by:

• bollards;
• LEDs;
• solar powered flashlights;
• optical fibers;
• luminescent paint;
• candles.

Lamps powered by solar energy attract with their autonomy and independence. They don't need to be turned on and off. The devices are so "smart" that they do it themselves with the onset of dusk and dawn, respectively. Their glow is soft, pleasing to the eye. The circles of light formed usually have a small diameter. The lack of binding to wires allows you to freely move devices around the garden area. What such garden lighting looks like is clearly demonstrated by the photo.

Bollards are columns up to one and a half meters high. The location of the lighting element is the upper zone. Bollards are sources of scattered rays, so they are supplied with low-power fluorescent bulbs.

Very often in the lighting of the garden plot you can see indirects. They are equipped with reflectors that concentrate and redirect light radiation downwards. The glare already reflected from the ground falls on the plants. The trees are illuminated from below. The benefits of such lamps are great: their light does not irritate, as it does not hit the eyes, and there is no effect of space distortion. This is truly the right garden lighting.

Optical fiber is also considered today as a very promising direction for street lighting. It is not fixated on electrical power, does not heat up, which allows you to add lighting to any corner of the garden. With its help, paintings are created in the grass, rock gardens, tree crowns are decorated, the contours of arbors, pergolas, etc. are highlighted.

Fluorescent paints are generally the easiest way to make DIY garden lighting. Here and things for 5 minutes. It is enough to find objects of an interesting shape and paint them with a composition that you like in color.Although the light from improvised lamps will not be bright, such lighting will look very original, and it will “work” completely free of charge.

Incredibly good in garden lighting and candles. An open flame must be hidden in homemade ceiling lamps. This minimizes the risk of a fire, the extinction of the candle and increases the aesthetic perception of the surrounding space. The garden atmosphere is immediately filled with romantic notes.

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Proper garden lighting: optimizing light flow

“Multi-colored lamps are indispensable in lighting a winter garden area, when nature ceases to indulge in an abundance of shades and a riot of greenery”

In order for the evening garden to appear in all its glory, it is not enough to choose the right type of lamp. This aspect will be mainly influenced by the strength, color spectrum and direction of its light flux. An inadequate selection of lighting elements will turn even the most chic plants into lifeless and dull shadows. This is how mercury lamps work. Their pale blue glow is a great imitation of moonlight, but the plants in it look dead, so they are often used only to illuminate garden paths.

It would seem that colored lamps should diversify the palette, but only silver-white foliage will be good in their rays. Leaves painted in autumn will lose their richness of colors. All that's left of them is a dull tint. This is where multi-colored lamps are indispensable, so it is in lighting the winter garden area, when nature ceases to indulge in an abundance of shades and a riot of greenery. Such elements are used in the organization of facade lighting and decoration of reservoirs.

When organizing garden lighting with your own hands, do not forget that flowers like lamps of a pure white or yellowish spectrum more. Such a glow is distinguished by halogens, fluorescent lamps. Floor lamps or spotlights with them are placed in the center of flower beds, rock gardens, rockeries.

Bushes like lighting from the inside. Lush trees with a spreading crown need to equip the lower tiered light supply.

An outdoor pool can also be turned into one large lamp if it is provided with underwater lighting.

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How to arrange adequate lighting for garden paths

When dealing with the issue of lighting paths when creating a garden lighting project, it is important to take into account the seasonality of the operational load. If the site is intended for year-round use, then equipment for lighting transit zones must be purchased all-weather, ready to work smoothly in any weather conditions without the need for specific care. The lighting of the paths of the garden plot should be balanced and not cause discomfort. Blinding light on them is inappropriate. It will interfere with admiring the luxuriously decorated surrounding landscape. In the night garden, a person will feel more confident if he gets the opportunity to go in the direction from darkness to light. How to make garden lighting correctly, tell the photo. To create a visual basis and specify the boundaries of the path, the easiest way is to decorate it on both sides with the same type of lighting fixtures.

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Selection of the type of lamps

It is necessary to choose a light source for lighting a soda area with an eye to the power required from it, the preferred gamut of the color mode and in accordance with the characteristics of the environment in which it will work.

Incandescent lamps have a low light output of 15 lm / W and can last no more than 1000 hours.

Halogen lamps, in terms of service, are more durable and can work at almost the same level of light output, twice as long as their predecessors.

Metal halide elements have a light output already at the level of 100 lm / W and please with their glow at the same time, as much as 12 thousand hours. Metal halide emit a close to natural light flux, but tend to get very hot, which makes it impossible to use them near landings.

Fluorescent lamps are afraid of moisture, so they can only work in a waterproof housing. In our climate, garden lighting with them is possible only in the summer, since already at a temperature of + 5o they often do not turn on, let alone work in frost. This type of lamp emits light close to the moon. They have a good light output and a long service life: 80 lm / W and 15 thousand hours, respectively.

LEDs. The color of the light wave emitted by them is determined by the type of crystal. With a good light output, which is at the level of 160 lm / W and a service life of over thirty years, they quite naturally became leaders in lighting garden plots.

Sodium lamps are champions in light output. They are characterized by a bright orange-yellow glow, pouring out with a power of up to over 150 lm / W. They are also pleased with the duration of the operational period, designed for 28 thousand hours.

If you look at the type of lighting created, then there is also a classification.

Floor lamps and lanterns in garden lighting are the prerogative of the main path and areas in front of the house. Remember that their height should be greater than human height so that the perception of space as a whole is not disturbed.

Luminous columns and bollards are used in marking. Their task is not so much in the correct lighting of the garden, but in the designation of transit zones. They are usually installed on tracks of secondary importance.

Equipping garden lighting with your own hands, take a closer look at such a newfangled trend as luminous stones. Elements of LED tiles become part of paved paths made of paving stones or paving slabs. They are added in a certain order, usually in a checkerboard pattern, but you can try to experiment and look for your own solution to the issue. Look for interesting garden lighting ideas in the photo.

Lamps with autonomous solar panels are not just a pleasant light, they are always a great decoration of the site, and not only at night. Many summer residents liked automatic switching on and the ability to move around the territory, so such devices in gardens are not a wonder.

The following advice will help you make the right lighting for the garden with your own hands: at the last stage of landscape design, it can only be developed if you use lamps that do not depend on the connection to the mains. In other cases, this issue should be dealt with at the very beginning. Laying the wiring will require a certain list of work, including digging ditches.

And the last thing: the appearance of the lamps involved in the illumination of the garden plot must correspond to the stylistic decision of the design of the surrounding landscape. Try not to overload the space with an abundance of decorative elements and light highlights, consider when it is better to prefer concise or hidden lighting elements, and when you can let your imagination run wild.

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Conclusion

Of course, the considered aspects of the organization of garden lighting are only a small part of the labor-intensive process, and you still have to revise the mountains of images and shovel a bunch of information in search of options that satisfy you. But it’s worth spending time on it, because interesting lighting effects will make your garden unique and turn it into the envy of your neighbors. Isn't that an incentive?

Photo gallery - garden lighting

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