Outdoor Yard Lighting

The outdoor yard lighting in your front yard welcomes your guests and guides them safely to the front door. It can also illuminate some of the special features you have in your front garden such as an unusually shaped tree or a flower bed of your favorite flowers. Outdoor yard lighting will do wonders for your backyard also.

There are no two gardens that are alike. Your garden has different plants, trees, hard-scape and garden decor that another garden doesn't. You may want to highlight a tree or a statue and some other gardener wants to highlight a special plant and some hard-scape.

You should make a drawing of your yard, pretty much to scale, of all the pathways, stairways, flower beds, trees, deck, and walls that you might want to light up. Use the drawing to determine the number and types of lighting fixtures that you need. Some tall features, such as a sculpted tree, may need more than one uplight.

If you are going to need a transformer and cable wiring, check with the expert at the home center, let him know everything that you are planning on doing and he will be able to guide you as to exactly what you need. Also let this expert know if you plan to add more lights in the future.  These home centers will also carry ground fault interrupters and wire nuts for connections that are waterproof.

The total cost of your outdoor lighting plans will include the price of transformer, cables, fixtures, and design and installation if you have an outside profession do the work.

There are five kinds of lights:

Path lights are very decorative outdoor yard lights. Some are made of copper, which eventually develop a patina; others are brass and other muted metal finishes. Some of the best path lights show wide pools of light and still shield the lamp from view.

Hedge lights use a broader beam to light up larger areas, such as hedges and walls. Most are installed on tall bases in order to elevate the light over shrubs that would normally block the light.

Uplights are slender, stake-mounted lamps that point upward at trees, sculptures, and fountains. We can also use them to cast shadows on walls. Many have blinders or hoods to hide the side views of the light inside.

Downlights are compact with deeply recessed lamps. They can be suspended from overhead tree branches to lighten an area below. Downlights have brackets that mount them to thick trunks or you can wrap them around more slender branches with straps.

Stairway lights are small, shielded lights that get mounted to walls or post of the deck in order to direct light onto the stairs. The front sides of these lights usually are louvered to shield the lamp while directing light.

Outdoor yard lighting brings a lot of highlights and ambience to any garden setting especially when highlighting those favorite areas of your outdoor living spaces.