What is Landscape Lighting for Landscaping

Besides enjoying an incredible nighttime aesthetic, it offers other elements like safety and security. Adequate landscape lighting for landscaping in your property showcases the best features and thus making it more cozy and warm.

What is Landscape Lighting?

Landscape lighting refers to the outdoor illumination system in public or private spaces for the purposes and enchantment of safety, security, nighttime aesthetics, event applications and recreation. One of the vital sources of energy for landscape lighting includes conventional power. Landscape lighting employs LEDs, low voltage fixtures, and solar panels. 

Besides, innovation is added to boost the aesthetic value of the lights in the landscape. It also raises your home architecture. Adding the water feature or ornamental landscaping can help your property glow in style and class.

What are the Landscape Lighting Types?

Knowing the Landscape Lighting Types that suit your garden is always recommended. It will help you to light your space wisely and add value during nightfall. Let us check the landscape lighting types: 

• Path lighting – It helps lighting up the walkways, making them safe and pleasing. 
• Bollard Lighting – It offers a secured option for commercial and residential locations with large-sized outdoor spaces using LED and solar bollard lamps. 
• Deck Lighting – Helps setting up the mood and element in the front yard. 
• In-Ground Well Lighting – Illuminates the lights outside your garden and house, giving an elegant glow. 
• Underwater Lighting – If your lawn has a fountain or pond, it helps beautify it. 
• Floodlights – It illuminates the bigger area of your space. 
• Well Lights – It is a form of a spotlight that illuminates the plants and trees on your lawn.
• Hardscape lights – It is the latest addition to landscape lighting. 

What are the Landscape Lighting Designs?

The landscape lighting design is about how you use the lights and make your yard or lawn look beautiful and illuminated. Generally, landscape lighting designs are too personal. It employs different design strategies and techniques and their combinations. Some may appear simple, and others can be complex affairs. 

Generally, the designs for landscape lighting are worked out as per different approaches, and some of these include the following: 

• Minimalist Approach – You enjoy ample outdoor lighting to showcase your yard or lawn, keeping the lighting effect dramatic. Keeping this approach keeps the details too romantic and mysterious. However, if you stretch it in your entire property, it will make things too spooky. The approach only allows certain trees and plants to get light. 
• Statement approach – It employs dramatic and bold lighting, which further helps create a statement. The approach lets everyone notice your lawn or property making you a proud owner. It uses floodlights and spotlights, keeping your space too bright. The statement approach is defined as bold and beautiful, and these are viewed as very gorgeous. 
• Symmetrical Approach – The name itself explains a lot about this approach. Symmetry remains the fundamental design principle that attracts the human eye. However, this does not mean that lights are placed in the balance. Only the light scene should maintain the similarity keeping right, left, top and bottom in the proper sense. 
• Safety Approach – If you intend to incorporate the security element, you must focus on all the areas for human navigation. This design approach involves employing downlights with sensors and more comprehensive floor lights. In other words, it will offer more safety elements with the least investment approach. 
• Natural Approach – It deals with creating illumination using natural sources like the moonlight rather than artificial. In other words, the objective of this approach is to create gorgeous scenes giving an impression of beautiful nighttime lighting.

Why would you invest in installing Landscape Lighting?

One of the critical elements of good landscaping is incorporating a proper system into your property. It is no optional feature anymore, as it offers your home elegance in outdoor lighting designs. There are several reasons for installing proper landscape lighting. Some of these include security, decor, curb appeal, adding efficiency to your property, adding warmth elements, and finally, increasing the property value, to name a few. Thus if you plan to install landscape lighting, you are bound to get a high return on your investment.

How to Install Landscape Lights?

Generally, landscape lighting involves putting low-voltage lights. It is a simple enhancement which adds a significant difference to your property. It covers the fence, walkways and certain trees or plants. It has three essential elements: laying the electrical cable, installing fixtures, and adding a transformer. The following are the essential steps to be followed for installing landscape lights: 

• Lay the components – Chalk out the pathway light fixtures over the surface 8 to 10 feet apart. You should rely on a 14-gauge cable with 200 watts or less. A 12 gauge cable would suffice for more than 200 watts. Allow the cable to pass underneath once you encounter any hurdle, like a shrub or fence. Install your transformer 10 feet from the first fixture.
• Turn the sod – While passing the cable beneath any more challenges, you can use the shovel’s blade to dig the mud up to 12 inches. You can install light fixtures over the top, which prevents the sod from falling back.
• Burry the electrical cable – You have to add smoothness to the soil in the trench and simultaneously leave the cable sticking to the soil. Now, make the slip over the detached sod allowing the fixture to sit correctly. Bury the line for around 3 inches to avoid facing any issues in connecting the light fixture. 
• Plug the transformer– Once you install the fixture and the lights, you need to wire them to the transformer. Once you do that, you have to plug in the transformer. 
• Make holes for fixtures – You must install all the light fixtures in their positions. Avoid using hammers for driving the fixtures over the surface. Also, do not place a light within ten feet of the spa, fountain and pool for obvious reasons.
• Make all your electrical connections – Start linking the connectors found in the fixture, making all the necessary electrical connections. You will see the institutions getting the light as you have plugged in the transformer. 
• Install the light fixtures – Once the electrical connections are made,  you are supposed to install the light fixtures in your chosen locations.
• Replace the sod – Once you install the fixtures, you need to replace the sod. Now start using the lights. With time, you will see a couple of bulbs burning out; better get rid of those and replace them with fresh ones. 

How much does it cost to install outdoor Landscape Lighting?

A small DIY project with 12 lights can cost you around 2500 USD; however, most landscape lighting ventures can range from 1000 USD to 500 USD. On average, the cost per light is 320 USD. If you intend to hire contractors, their charges can vary depending on the factors, including installing landscape lighting.

The design costs are also included, and it can charge 200 USD to 500 USD, including developing a plan and getting detailed instructions for your DIY venture. The designers will always use the best fixtures for the project and thus locate some of the best placements that can give you a decent look.

How long do Landscape Lighting fixtures last?

The landscape lighting fixtures can last for around 25 to 40 years, with an average life of around 30 years. However, the duration applies only to the fixtures which top brands produce. The other factors that play their part in making the landscape lighting fixtures last include professional installation, proper maintenance and quality. Contact Eden for professional installation of landscaping lights on your landscape.