We always recommend to our clients to use lighting to maximize your outdoor living space. After adding a living space and beautiful landscaping, outdoor lighting really does pull your yard together. Lighting emphasizes the beauty of your plants, garden, and landscape design in a nighttime environment. But most importantly, it maximizes the time you can spend in your outdoor living space. We all desperately await the warmer weather. Plan now for a little landscape lighting to enjoy outdoor living during the most months of the year.
Up-Light Your Plants and Foliage
When creating a landscape planting and lighting plan, we like to focus on the uniqueness of particular plants. For instance, a Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Diane’/Diane Witch Hazel has a naturally beautiful form. Adding an up-light beneath this shrub shows off the twists and turns of its multi-stemmed branches, which contrasts with its broad leaf. When the leaves fall in the late winter and early spring, this plant shows bright ,copper-red flowers. As the sun sets, framed by snow as a backdrop, and with up-lighting this is a visual stunner.
The Magnolia virginiana/Sweetbay Magnolia is a tree that is fun to up-light because it captures the uniqueness of its leaf with a silver under-belly. Our other favorite candidates for up-lighting include the Acer palmatum dissectum/Japanese Maple because of the way the light plays with its maroon foliage, interesting branches, and leaf shape. The Betula/Birch species is known for its white/exfoliating bark and simple, bright green leaves. It is another great plant to view at night with low-voltage landscape lighting.
Other Uses for Landscape Lighting
We do more than up-light plants. Our landscape lighting showcases unique architectural pieces on the house and in your yard. We also install pillar lighting and lighting inside retaining walls. And, of course, will light walkways and paths to ensure your yard is safe.
If you are interested in how to use lighting to maximize your outdoor living space, let’s work together.
