Landscape Lighting

What is the benefit of landscape lighting?

Landscape Lighting is not just about making your home more attractive.  It extends your days into the night. It also has both aesthetic and practical uses. There are three basic categories that combine form and function when designing a landscape lighting plan for your home:

• Safety
• Security 
• Aesthetics

Safety:  Safety is an important issue for any homeowner.  Landscape lighting can provide the homeowner with just that.  You have walks, paths and decking around your home that you and your friends and family use daily.  Landscape lighting can be strategically placed to illuminate these areas ensuring confidence with every step.  Safety is key for the entertaining homeowner.  

Security:  Security levels up with Safety for most.   Home intruders target homes that are dark, allowing them to come and go without being seen. Landscape lighting near doors, windows, and landscaped areas can reduce the risk factor for criminals who may want to use these areas for cover or access to your home. This lighting is not bright like flood lights that may cause a disturbance to the homeowner but more subtle, directed, or intentional.  

Aesthetics:  Curb appeal is quite literally how your home looks from your curb.  Homeowners take pride and make huge investments into their curb appeal.  If you do not have landscape lighting, you cannot enjoy your hard work and investment past sunset.  Landscape lighting provides you with the ability to enjoy your home after dark and make your landscaping and the architecture of your home more dramatic. Different spotlights and washes and flood lighting can highlight plants, trees or even water features and pools.  

Types of Landscape Lighting

• Flood Lighting- Flood lights are typically the brightest of the landscape lighting family and cast light at an angle of 40 degrees or more. They are usually used to illuminate entry ways into the homeowner’s yard, around fences or gates. 

• Well Lighting – These lighting fixtures are buried in the ground.  This allows light to be seen while hiding the fixture and save it from distracting from the landscape. These lights may be used to under light shrubs and other ornamental landscaping.

• Spot Lighting – Spot cast a narrower light that provides more direct but subtle illumination. These lights are typically used to light trees and the corners of your home.  These are used in certain techniques to “Graze” the side of your home creating shadowing that accentuates your homes architecture.  

• Wall Washing – A wash light is used to give soft lighting to walls and other open spaces including landscape groupings and focal points.  These lights have wide angles of light, but softer than a flood light. 

• Path Lighting- These lights are used in flower beds and along paths. These may cast a soft glow on landscape bed edges or used to light paths and walks.  

• Downlight- Downlight Lighting is typically used in commercial lighting but can be used in backyard tree lighting also known as moon lighting.  Newer Custom homes will often come with soffit lighting which is used to downlight the architecture of a home.  Down lighting can be used in conjunction with landscape lighting to provide the best in exterior illumination.  

• Bistro Lighting- Bistro lighting gets its name from the French Bistro style restaurants with string lighting cris-crossing the outdoor seating areas.  These lights can be either low voltage where they are controlled by a transformer or plugged in to your standard 120v outlet.  Bistro lighting can be attached to the house and strategic poles situated around your outdoor sitting and cooking areas to provide the low light glow.  Couple this with the “Edison” style bulb and your topic of conversation may just be your lighting!  You will be envied by all your guest.  

All-State Pest and Lawn provides custom designed outdoor illumination to accompany your landscape. Financing is available. Call today for your landscape lighting quote.