Perfect outdoor lighting will make your garden and outdoor areas look stunning, but poor lighting will do the complete opposite, vastly diminishing the look and feel of your outdoor space and ultimately leave it unfulfilled. There are many ways to get it wrong, so we’ve put together a list of the garden lighting mistakes you need to avoid.
Not Having a Plan
The old saying goes fail to prepare, prepare to fail and you can certainly relate that to landscape lighting. It isn’t as simple as just popping down a few path and wall lights here and there and thinking that’ll be sufficient. The best-looking gardens have a clear plan at their inception, a structure to where lights will go and what lights are needed to maximise the space. Your garden designer or landscaper should take charge, working with you to plan the best design possible, which takes us onto our next mistake to avoid.
Choosing an Inexperienced Landscaper
As we’ve mentioned before, you want your landscaper to be experienced, bringing with them lots of images, videos, and testimonials for the projects they’ve done previously. This will give you confidence they’ve got the ability and experience to help your garden realise its full potential. The worst thing you can do is choose someone who talks a good game but doesn’t have the sufficient evidence to back it up. And whilst a few positive projects here and there may look good, it makes sense to employ someone who’s got results over a longer period.
Installing the Wrong Lighting Fixtures
This mistake should be easily avoided if you’ve followed the first two points. Using the correct lighting fixture in the right area of the garden is imperative to the success of your project and critical to creating the effects you’re looking to achieve. It will take some experience to know how to get it right and a good garden designer or landscaper will know exactly which fixtures work in which areas.
Going Overboard with Lighting Fixtures
The number of lights you want in your garden is subjective, but we do recommend starting with a smaller amount as it’s a sensible place to start – then making additions when it’s needed. Again, if you get your plan right, this will all be taken care of because you’ll be able to easily map out which areas are going to be lit.
Using Poor Lighting Products
At Lighting for Gardens, we know all too well you get what you pay for. Buy a cheaper option to cut costs and the fixture just isn’t going to last. You don’t want to have the situation where your lights worked fine in summer but have since stopped performing properly after the colder winter months. Premium quality lights from ELIPTA are the professionals’ choice for a reason. They look great, they work great and they’re long lasting – all the things you want from your lighting fixtures.
Fixtures Not Mounted Properly
The performance of your lighting fixtures will partly be down to how well they’re installed. The last thing you want is spotlights to start leaning to one side or tree mounted lights becoming loose and unsecure. A good installation helps lights work for longer and minimises costs.
It’s without question how important professionally installed landscape lighting fixtures are for your garden project, whilst it’s also crucial for those fixtures to be of the highest quality. Lighting for Gardens is the UK’s major distributor of ELIPTA, the professional’s choice for landscape lighting equipment, and used in major landscape lighting projects around the world. Learn more about these premium lighting fixtures on our website.