Garden lighting serves as an atmospheric design element and optimizes safety. In order to combine both tasks tastefully and cost-effectively, detailed planning sets the course. This guide gets to the heart of what characterizes good lighting planning.
How do I plan the garden lighting correctly?
When planning garden lighting, paths and paths, seats, beds and plants should be taken into account. Use bollard lights, recessed lights and bright spots for the different areas. Solar lamps offer an environmentally friendly option for hard-to-reach places.
Plan path lighting – this is what you should pay attention to
With light you can give garden paths a friendly look in the dark and defuse potential tripping hazards. So start planning your new garden lighting with paths and pathways.
Bollard lights do the job brilliantly. Please ensure that the light beam angle is 90 degrees for wide paths and 60 degrees for narrow paths. However, if the plan includes illuminating the edge of the path and the bed at the same time, use bollard lights with a 360 degree beam angle.
Illuminate your seat in style – this is how it works
With recessed lights you can impressively showcase your terrace and seating area in the garden. Installed in the floor or wood, the light sources trace architectural elements and at the same time serve as an orientation aid. The following design variants are highly valued for successful lighting planning:
- Plan long floor lights as light rails to illuminate steps or the edge of the terrace
- Position selective, round recessed lights as effect lights to highlight privacy screens and house walls
- Mark access paths to the terrace and seating area with walk-in recessed spotlights
Modern lamps for the garden are equipped with dimmers as Plug & Shine. This has the advantage that you can flexibly control the brightness of the lamps, depending on your needs and mood.
Light planning for beds and plants – planning tips
Properly planned, garden lighting transforms your beds and plants into a floral fairyland at night. The aim of the planning work is the artistic staging of islands of light that accentuate trees, bushes, perennials and grasses. The following tips show the way:
- Small trees with broad growth illuminate with a wide beam of light
- Set majestic trees with a slender silhouette in a narrow, high-reaching light outlet
- Integrate bright spots into beds with plants at different heights
The rule of thumb for artistic lighting planning in the garden is that an object is ideally illuminated from below. This premise applies wherever you want to create a magical aura with light.
Solar lamps – decorative problem solvers
Hardly any garden area is spared from hidden niches whose power supply from the grid is complex and uneconomical. The cost-conscious planning includes decorative solar lamps for these locations, which receive their energy from the sun. Without a connection cable or a socket, ball and floor lights or spots bring light into the dark. The only requirement is that they face south so that the solar modules can charge with solar energy.
Tip
Safety is very important when planning garden lighting. This also applies to laying the power cables. Underground cables with protective tubes in a 60 cm deep trench, embedded in a thick layer of sand, offer you and your family the perfect conditions for a carefree life in the beautifully lit garden.
