Adding lighting to your backyard oasis area creates atmosphere and a wonderful place to relax after the sunsets. By using lighting you can emphasis certain areas of the gardens and make wandering around the yard safer. Its also seems that by lighting a garden you extend your living space to the outdoors. You will also be able to add more entertaining time and use to your backyard with evening lighting.
photo credit: The County Clerk

Here are a few suggestions to make lighting the backyard oasis successful and easy.

• Use the minimum amount of light so that you can enjoy the special qualities of nighttime. If you supply too much light you will ruin the enchanting feel that the evening brings to gardens. One of the best ways to create this feeling to try and simulate the light level of a bright, moonlit night.
• Light the pathways in your garden. Even if you don’t have defined paths you probably have a route or two through the yard or gardens that you will want illuminated for safety. Use path lights or create a series of pools of light that lead through the garden and your backyard design.
• It’s best to hide the sources of the lights. It adds to the natural look. If you use any lamps choose a softer non-glaring bulb for a more natural look.
• Garden torches and small hanging lanterns from trees add a welcoming look to yards. I make garden lanterns from small glass jars and older teacups. I hang them or from wire and varying heights or sit them around the yard on rocks or old stumps.
• You can also accent the most dramatic trees in the garden. The lighting emphasizes their natural beauty and adds much light to the yard.
• By planting flowers that reflect the night light and bloom at night you can add more color and fragrance to your yard.
• Moonlight theme gardens are very popular and often do not take much space, so are perfect for tucking in corners and the urban backyard. For more information on moonlight gardens check this article out: Moonlight Theme Gardens

As with any garden art or added fixtures, use garden lighting with in moderation to accent your yard and gardens. You may also want to look into solar lighting. It’s more environmentally friendly plus you won’t be laying and hiding electrical cords.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 10:48 pm and is filed under backyard oasis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.