Jun 05 2009
Garden Spot Lights
Garden spotlights when used properly create compelling focal points in your garden by focusing a direct shaft of light on desired garden pieces such as trees, statues, fountains and more. They can also be used to direct the flow of foot traffic through the garden by lighting the path way. Garden spotlights can be used in a variety of lighting patterns each with its own unique effect.
Down Lighting
Down lighting is the use of garden spotlights pointing down. This effect projects a pool of light onto the focal object such as a tree fountain. Down lighting can also be used to provide safety lighting for pathways or generally darkened areas of the landscape.
Cross Lighting
Cross lighting refers to placing the garden spotlight to one side of the focal object so that the light shines across the object. The spotlight can be mounted on the ground or attached to a building or tree.
Moonlighting
Using garden spotlights in clusters with lower voltage bulbs and attaching them in the top of a tree in order to produce shadows from the lower limbs and greenery. This produces a delicate, speckled light over a patio, path or driveway entrance.
Mirroring
Mirroring is an especially brilliant use of garden spotlights. Placed in pairs in front of a body of water and aimed at a feature in front such as tress or statues, the light reflects back onto the pool or pond creating a mirror of the object shined on.
Uplighting
Uplighting is the most common use for garden spot lights. It creates a more dramatic effect than other lighting techniques using spotlights. Uplighting reverses the daylight effect and provides a wider coverage of light starting from the bottom and going upwards.
Grazing
Grazing is used to play off a texture of surface of a feature, such as an artistically designed plaster wall. The garden spot lights are positioned at an angle very close to the surface to be grazed the emphasis is created by the strong shadow from the light.
Washing
Washing is a direct opposite effect from grazing. Washing uses garden spotlights to create an even coverage of light to define a particular space or create a backdrop for other scenery such as a fountain or garden statue.
Silhouetting
Silhouetting uses garden spotlights to create outlines of the object in focus by lighting the surface behind it. This is not the same as haloing or backlighting. The light source must be in the background shining through the object to produce the silhouette.
Spread Lighting
Spread lighting uses low level lighting from mounted garden spot lights with canopies attached to provide a circular pool of light to illuminate a pathway, low lying terrace, or plantings. This type of garden spot lighting differs from path lighting in that the light source itself comes from underneath a canopy.
Garden spotlights can be used in a variety of applications to highlight features of the garden or just add a dramatic effect to a previously unnoticed area of the garden.