You don’t know your garden until you’ve seen it lighted at night. It develops a new personality, completely different from its daytime look.
Lighting gives you more hours for outdoor living. The barbecue is not abandoned as nighttime falls, and you may garden in the cool of the evening.
The teenagers play games on the lawn, and guests find your house and safely navigate the steps and path to your door.
We have looked into how to install lights and the types of equipment available to you.
Here are the findings:
Garden Lighting Development
Waterproof Extension Cord
The development that brings garden lighting within reach of everyone is the waterproof extension cord with its moisture-proof connections.
These cords may be laid over the ground from an electrical outlet, hidden among shrubs and flowers where they will not be walked upon.
You may attach several lighting fixtures to them, some for beautiful lighting effects and others for safety, work, and play.
For each purpose, fixtures are weatherproof and wired, ready to be plugged in.
It is not necessary to lay numerous expensive cables to achieve results. Garden lighting has become as simple as lighting your living room.
With these cords, you do not need a weatherproof outdoor outlet.
You just need to do the following:
- Open a window an inch or two and place a piece of board in the opening.
- Drill a hole in the board and run your weatherproof extension cord through it to an indoor plug.
This is a temporary set-up and may be used for parties and occasional garden illumination.
However, once you have experienced garden lighting, you will want a permanent installation.
Permanent Installation For Garden Lighting
For a permanent installation, at least one waterproof outdoor outlet is necessary.
Depending on how many lights you plan to use, you may be able to plug in your outlet on an existing circuit in the garage or house.
Be careful not to overload the circuit. (An average circuit carries about 1500 watts.)
Your electrical contractor can advise you if you should have a separate circuit, in which case it will originate at the distribution panel in your house.
You can have an outlet on your terrace from this circuit, another for a step light, and others for the garden.
Plan carefully, and by using plug-in fixtures, one outlet may allow you to have lighting in all these locations.
For a permanent installation, neoprene direct burial cables are run underground to an outlet box which may be attached to a tree or building or left free-standing.
As mentioned previously, experiment with a temporary installation to find the most advantageous locations for permanent outlets.
Aim to get an as great distribution of lights from one outlet as possible.
Follow Local Regulations
Local regulations vary, and your cable laying and wiring may have to meet the specifications of an electrical code.
Generally, it is best to have an electrician attend to all wiring jobs for your permanent installation, or your electrical service company may give you free advice or assistance.
Many homeowners dig their own cable trenches, and after their electrician has installed the cable and had it inspected by underwriters, they fill it in, thus saving considerable expense.
All necessary equipment, including the lighting fixtures, is available from your electrical supply dealer.
If you shop for good inexpensive waterproof fixtures and dig and cover your own trenches, you can have an installation for as little as $30 to $40.
Whether you have a permanent installation or a temporary one for this year, remember that when you plug in fixtures or replace bulbs, you should do it in a dry garden.
After each of your lamps has been plugged in, turn on the electricity.
And if you place a light in your pool, do it before turning on the current.
Lighting Fixtures
As you shop for lighting fixtures, you will find that they are rugged and weatherproof, designed for year-round use and to fill any requirement.
Terrace and path lights require only ordinary bulbs, while those for work and play areas and garden picture effects for general illumination require 150-watt or larger PAR spot or flood lamps.
Most fixtures are portable with stands or spikes that are merely stuck in the ground where you want them.
Spotlights may be attached to trees and buildings, and the fixtures may be turned at any angle.
Designs by many manufacturers are now comparable to the excellent design found in indoor lamps.
Simple floodlights, completely wired and ready to be plugged in, sell for as little as $3.00.
Few even elaborate fixtures cost more than $15.00, and the majority you will find in the middle price range.
You can be economical and still have attractive and serviceable lighting.
Outdoor Illumination Requirements
Outdoor illumination requires little current.
For example, one 150-watt flood PAR bulb will illuminate about 1200 square feet of trees 40′ feet away if used in one of the sleek bullet-type reflectors, and the trees thus lighted will glow as if a bright moon were shining upon them.
One 150-watt lamp will illuminate a game or parking area about 40′ by 40′ feet.
Just an ordinary 60-watt bulb in a mushroom or one of the ornamental-type fixtures beside a path will light up an area 20′ feet in diameter.
While these are safety lights, they also throw interesting lights on lawns and shrubs.
You don’t have to depend on manufactured fixtures for your lighting, but you must know something about wiring and electricity to improvise your own.
Waterproof cords and sockets are available in fixtures of your own invention.
Outdoor Christmas lights may also be used in ingenious ways.
For example, if you finally get around to building a “good flight” of steps that you have always needed this spring, there are fixtures you can build right into the ramps on either side of the steps.
Lighting For Beauty
Lighting brings out colors in your flowers that you have never noticed before, and foliage patterns and textures are suddenly evident as the lights go on.
You are in complete control of the garden stage, focusing attention on what you want to be seen and allowing undesirable objects to melt into the darkness.
In lighting for beauty, it is best to concentrate on one or two points of interest to be seen from your terrace or picture window.
You may pick up an interesting group of trees or shrubs or pinpoint the light on geraniums growing in an old urn some distance away.
Experiment
The effects you will be able to achieve are unlimited.
Remember that you are not striving for a daytime effect but a nighttime one.
To avoid flat effects that destroy a feeling of depth and form, you may want to light flowers and other objects from the side rather than directly in front.
Flowers are best illuminated with white light, but yellow, blue, red, and green bulbs or lenses are available for water features and garden structures.
Remember that the farther the objects to be lighted are from the light source, the fainter the illumination will get.
Solid objects, such as trees in full leaves or structures, will be illuminated more effectively than bare trees.
Take advantage of light reflected from light-colored buildings, fences, or other structures, as decorative lighting may throw reflected light on your parking area.
Remember that scenes from a lighted room require more wattage, which means more fixtures or bigger lamps than if the same illumination were observed from an unlighted space or dimly lit terrace.
Proper Positioning Of Fixture Light Beams
Point the light beams of your fixtures toward the area to be lighted.
You may also then adjust the position of your fixtures, so the light does not shine into your or your neighbor’s eyes.
If fixtures are mounted high on a building or tree, the adjustment is somewhat more complicated but is effective since you can light up a large area.
You may want to use a combination of flood and spot bulbs for soft general illumination.
The spotlights will pick up an interesting detail and help you avoid a “whitewash” or ghostly effect that would defeat your purpose of having an attractive garden.
If a flood or spotlighting fixtures are used at ground level, pointed up into a planting of shrubs or trees, or are placed near the base of buildings, the important thing is to point them away from the direction of your and your neighbor’s walks, and the windows in your house.
One of the simplest ways to utilize floodlights is to place them in the front of bushes with their backs to the picture window or terrace.
The real art in lighting for beauty comes from your ability to conceal the source of light.
Insect-Repelling Light Fixtures
All this is well and good, you may say, but with all these lights won’t the insects they attract prevent me from even stepping outdoors at night?
Remember that yellow lights discourage night-flying insects and come in 60-, 100- and 150-watt sizes so you can still have ample illumination for your terrace and play areas.
Game and work lights are adjustable and can be set high enough so that the insects attracted to the lights fly well above your head.
Mosquito-repellent candles and lights that attract, trap, and kill insects are also on the market.
Effect Of Lighting On Plant Growth
A question certain to come to readers’ minds has to do with the effect of lighting on plant growth.
Southern readers will naturally avoid lighting their poinsettias until the bracts show color, while Northern readers will not light their chrysanthemums indiscriminately.
Little research has been done on this phase of garden lighting, but reports from readers who are already enjoying their gardens at night mention no ill effects.
A research program is underway at Michigan State College now, but no results have been published.
According to Charles C. Fischer, research assistant, various deciduous shrubs, broad- and narrow-leaved evergreens, and annuals are grown in greenhouses under various colored lights and varying conditions.
This experiment is being conducted to study these lighted plants’ growth, flowering, dormancy, and winter hardiness.
The work will continue over an extended time to include and repeat the year’s seasons.
The effects of lighting may prove beneficial to plants, so if you want to enjoy your garden after dark, go ahead and light up this spring.
Here is a bonus feature of lighting: with the flip of a switch, you can light your garden and scare prowlers into outer darkness!