Should You Add Landscape Lighting to Your Outdoor Spaces?

Updated: 1/25/2022

If you want to make your yard more attractive and accessible, consider adding landscape lighting. This can be as complicated as installing electricity outside or as simple as putting in solar lights along the walkways. The best landscape spotlights will add plenty of light to your yard when you need it, allowing you to see anything that might be happening at night. If you’re looking for security lighting, you’ll want the best floodlights for the yard. This can help deter both criminals and wild animals that might try to access your property.

If you’re looking for lights to make socializing in your yard more pleasant, you can also look for the best low-voltage lighting to give the yard a glowing look. These lights, combined with the best landscaping lights for retaining walls, will make your yard enjoyable to be in. If you combine these lights with some floodlights for safety, you’ll have all of your landscape lighting needs covered. Take a look at the layout of your yard and see which areas could use more light. This will make planning easier.

If you’re considering making any changes to your outdoor spaces, one of the most important features that you can add is landscape lighting. Outdoor lighting has many functions, and a well lit home and landscape is attractive as well as more secure. It’s now possible to manage outdoor lighting using smart home devices. An experienced garden design company can help you design the ideal system of low voltage landscape lighting for your home.

Should you install landscape lighting?
If you’re among the millions of Americans who enjoy spending time outdoors, you’re probably also looking for ways to add beauty and functionality to those spaces. The 2016 Houzz Landscaping and Garden Trends Study found that around 50% of homeowners who made improvements to their yards and gardens typically spent about six hours outdoors each week. Depending on the climate, it’s possible to use your yard and garden for entertaining, relaxing, and meals for three or four seasons of the year.
Among the improvements that can be made, landscape lighting systems rank high, along with drainage solutions and custom designed sprinkler systems. Low voltage landscape lighting serves many different functions, and has aesthetic as well as functional value. Landscaping adds as much as 14% to the value of your home, because it appeals to home buyers as well. In fact, over 90% of all real estate agents advise home sellers to do some landscaping before putting the house on the market. This may not be your primary concern, but it doesn’t hurt to add value to your home.

Adding beauty and safety
Low voltage landscape lighting can be used to highlight plantings and special features like lily ponds, rustic seats or bridges, and decorations and statues. Spotlights can be used to show off special trees and shrubs. Dim lighting can be used to add ambience, and you may just want to add fairy lights to a favorite shrub or tree. Decorative lampposts are almost irresistible to anyone who has read ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ or seen the movie.
Lighted pathways, decks and patios add an element of safety as well so you and your visitors don’t have to stumble around in the dark. A lighted home and yard is also safer from the risk of a break-in. Outdoor lighting can be used to add functionality to areas like patios and swimming pools, making it possible to use them after dark.

A custom designed landscape lighting system
A low voltage landscape lighting system is best designed by a professional garden design company, because there are technical as well as aesthetic considerations to be factored in. The professionals can keep in mind all technical requirements such as placement, voltage, design and power sources, and match these to your space. They can also link the landscape lighting to a smart device, making it easy to control from a mobile phone or tablet.

A low voltage landscape lighting system can add both beauty and functionality to your outdoor spaces. A professional garden design company can design and install a lighting system that’s right for your space and your needs.