Lights add function, creativity and spontaneity to the landscape. If you have a long driveway, walkway or want to highlight gardens, a low-voltage lighting system is the way to go. This lets you see at night all the hard work you’ve put in by day!

The traditional outdoor light in a carriage or colonial look remains popular, but there are many more styles and looks to choose from. Wrought iron decorative scrolls are very popular, as are hand-forged designs.

Contemporary outdoor lighting is also becoming popular, with styles ranging from Mission to rustic lodge-look and sleek modern.

Garden glitter

The outdoor plants that enrich our lives in the day fall into dark shadows at night, unless we provide appropriate light. Besides adding beauty, landscape lighting can make your property safer to navigate after dark.

Some tips for landscape lighting:

• Clear away the brush and debris from your front walkways and add attractive, low-voltage lights to illuminate the path to your door.
  
  
• If you plan on plenty of outdoor entertainment on the deck or by the pool, install low-voltage lights under handrails, deck benches, tables or stairs for a dramatic effect and safety. Submerged lights in water gardens or ponds add an aesthetic touch.
  
  
• Once flowerbeds are in full bloom, showcase them at night by inserting down lights in nearby trees to highlight the ground cover.
  
  
• Use a slightly coloured light to make your shrubs appear a deeper green or a bed of flowers brighter.

Dramatic effect

Why lose your garden’s breathtaking beauty just because it’s night? Select a special garden statue, an artistic-looking tree or an intriguing plant, and light it from behind.

• Use in-ground fixtures or small spotlights to create the silhouetted look.
  
  
• Place the light source behind the object you want to silhouette.
  
  
• Hide your fixtures so they don’t detract from the effect you want to achieve.
  
  
• Make sure you are not aiming light into the sky, which contributes to light pollution. Position the light so it is directed more horizontally than vertically.

Light up your trees

For a full tree, place the light close to the base of the trunk and light upward, so that the spreading pool of light can create shifting patches of dark and light foliage. For slim trees, use a narrow-beam spotlight. But be careful. Sending light upward can cause light pollution. So make sure the light hits the trees. You will also save energy by making sure you only light what you intend to.

Grow and glow

Sure, your flowerbed is a pretty showcase by day. But at night, it can look dull or virtually non-existent.

Lighting your flowerbed not only contributes to the garden’s night-time beauty, but can actually help the flowers grow. Use a concealed, well-aimed spotlight mounted on a pole or nearby tree.

Bug-busters

Ensuring a bug-free meal on your patio is a two-part process. Use a yellow compact fluorescent bug-repellent bulb over the table and place a standard incandescent bulb on the opposite end of your patio —- away from your seating — to draw bugs to the whiter light.

Yellow bug lights are available in compact fluorescent models, which save energy. Of course, if you want to really attract bugs away to a particular spot (which “bug zapping” machines do), install ultraviolet bluish lights.

The author is an interior design consultant, specialising in the design of corporate and residential interiors. As a senior faculty member at a Calcutta institute, she has delivered lectures, guided research and conducted projects in the field of 'Housing & Interior Design' for over two decades. She can be contacted at ) kusumsmail@yahoo.com)