Many outdoor lighting options are available today for your patio, yard or outdoor garden.
Gardens, as well as inside the home have many kinds of lighting that they can avail themselves of in order to create mood, ambience, draw the eye to one place or another or pull it away from flaws in landscaping or home decor.
Some of those various methods of lighting are explored here, as well as examples of how to use them.Your choice of lighting will depend upon what you will use the garden, or that particular area of it for.
If it is to showcase a part of the home or garden to the world in the evening or later at night a floodlight or spotlight type lighting might be in order, where if what you want is to assure security, another type entirely would be something you would choose when you install it.
A garden will have several types of lighting in several different areas ideally, so that those areas you would like to show off are seen in their best “light” so to speak, while the ones you would like to provide with a romantic or ethereal effect will require another type. Here are a few of the types of lighting you may need in your outdoor garden or yard.
Ambient lighting
Lighting that provides illumination in an overall area with and offers a level of light that is comfortable to everyone using it.
In outdoor situations, ambient lighting brightens a patio for eating or entertaining, or an entry way for safety and security.
Downlighting
The source of the light is above the object and mounted there so that the light ray or beam is directed downward onto the object, casting light in a wide path.
is used for safety or security but also for highlighting flower beds, paths or steps, the down light is positioned close to the ground.
Uplighting
The light source is aimed upwards in the air at a particular object and is used to highlight something such as a tree, fountain or statue.
Moonlighting
Like downlighting, but using soft light sources positioned very high up, this creates the effect of moonlight glimmering through branches, and makes very attractive shadow patterns.
Diffused Lighting
The light source creates an oval or a round patterns of low light on flowers, shrubs or ground and spreads light over a wider area.
Spotlighting
The use of an intense beam to make a focal point in a garden..
Shadowing
Lights a given object from both front and below to make shadows of interest on the wall behind it.
Grazing
Putting the light close to a surface of interst such as a tree to bring out the texture of the bark.
Silhouetting
Concealing lights behind and below a tree or bush so that the silhouette is visible against the sky.
Crosslighting
Lighting an object from two or three sides.
Floodlights
Floodlights make a wide distribution of light, perfect for lighting up a wall, sign or large object.
Washing
Lighting a flat wall or surface by placing the source of the light near the bottom so that the light does just as it says, washed the surface of the object.
