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Lighting Your Way
by Carrie Paulk
One of the reasons that discourages people from installing and maintaining
a useful and pleasing landscape is the lack of usefulness of it during
the evening hours. Many of us work during the day and do not arrive home
until near or after dark. However, your landscape can be used and enjoyed
during the evening by utilizing an outdoor landscape lighting system in
your property. A lighting system brings this and other benefits to your
landscape.
Your landscape could benefit in multiple ways with the installation of
an outdoor lighting system. With a properly installed system that utilizes
the right light in the right way, yet also done with a creative flair,
your property would literally glow with beauty come nightfall. A lighting
system for your landscape has some other benefits as well.
Do you find your garden looking rather bare during those sparse winter
months? A few well-placed lights can highlight the architectural side
of those bare trees. Do you feel nervous during that after-dark walk from
your car to the front stoop? A well-lit landscape makes for a significantly
safer property. Treating your landscape to an outdoor lighting system
will add many useful features to your property.
The most important benefit of landscape lighting, safety, is also one
of the most overlooked. Not only are burglars warded off by a well-lit
property, it makes you feel safer when you're outside at night, which
gives you peace of mind. Having a lighting system also keeps you safe
from yourself. With some path lights illuminating your way, you are less
likely to trip over the flagstones, or run into the arbor. A landscape
lighting system helps provide safety from others and your own occasional
clumsiness.
Apart from safety, landscape lighting will also increase the usability
of your yard. With more people working longer hours of the day, there
is less daytime hours to spend enjoying their landscape, which in turn
prevents people to see any benefit to landscaping their property. However,
with a lighting system installed, you will be able to enjoy your garden
after nightfall. With some creative lighting enhancements, you could spend
your evening home from work in your landscape, either by enjoying a home-cooked
dinner with family or relaxing in a sitting area with friends. Having
your landscape lit at night will make your property much nicer to come
home to.
How about those cold winter months, when your landscape seems to be at
it's lowest point? Outdoor lights can be put into good use during the
bare winter months as well. One good winter use of landscape lighting
is to highlight the best parts of your landscape, while keeping the out-of-season
areas in darkness. This simple lighting trick can work wonders in your
winter garden.
Many parts of the winter property have bare plant areas where the leaves
have been dropped for winter, but this is no reason to hide these plants.
With some well-placed lights, you can highlight the branching structure
of these plants and create a winter architectural sculpture to enjoy during
the evening hours. Many plants look striking in this kind of winter lighting,
including crapemyrtles, japanese maples, and oakleaf
hydrangeas. By directing the viewer's eye to the points of interest of
your winter landscape, and creating new points of interest on your own,
you can make your property enjoyable during the colder winter months.
By combining these lighting tricks for winter use with the tips for safety
and nighttime application, the results can be spectacular. Your property
can be enjoyed at all hours of the day and any time of the season. With
outdoor lights you will also feel safer in your yard as you come home
to relax in your garden. By using a creative outdoor landscape lighting
plan, you can create a safe landscape that will be both dazzling and functional
day and night, winter or summer.
Carrie Paulk is the author of "Lawnmower Lighting Your Way,"
which is part of the Tip of the Week program with Turf Tamer, Inc. She
has written many informative landscaping articles. To learn more about
landscaping tips and tricks, you can find the rest of her articles
at http://www.turftamerinc.com/tip.shtm
. She can be reached at carrie@turftamerinc.com .
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