Garden lighting
For most of the year, the garden is dark when you are actually home. Lighting is the difference between a garden you look at in June and one you use in November.
The cheapest thing you will ever regret
Running a duct under a patio before it is laid costs almost nothing. Adding lighting afterwards means lifting paving, chasing walls and a visible cable run.
So even where lighting is not in the budget, we will put ducting and draw cords in as the base goes down. It is a couple of hours and it keeps the option open for as long as you want it.
Where lighting is in the scheme, we design it as a scheme rather than dotting spike lights about. A few well-placed fittings doing different jobs beats twenty pointing at nothing.
How we light a garden
Uplight the structure
Trees, multi-stems and walls. Uplighting gives a garden depth after dark and it is the single highest-impact thing you can do.
Wash the boundaries
Grazing a slatted screen or a stone wall from close in makes the garden feel wider and hides the fence line.
Mark the changes in level
Recessed fittings in step risers and retaining walls. Safety first, but it also draws the eye through the garden.
Keep it warm
2700K as standard. Cool white makes a garden look like a car park and it makes planting look dead.
Low voltage, properly
12V systems with a transformer sized with headroom, cable buried in duct, connections in proper junction boxes.
One control
Everything on a single circuit with a timer or a smart switch, so it is one action rather than six.
The electrical side
Low-voltage garden lighting runs from a transformer that needs a supply. If there is already a suitable outdoor socket or spur, we work from it. If there is not, that is notifiable electrical work and it needs a registered electrician — we will flag it in the quote rather than leave you to discover it.
- 12V low-voltage fittings, IP-rated for external use
- Cable in duct under hard surfaces, never buried loose
- Transformer sized with spare capacity for adding to later
- Positions marked out with you on site before anything is fixed
- Tested, commissioned and demonstrated at handover
Come and see one lit up
Photographs do not do garden lighting justice. If you are local we can usually arrange for you to see one after dark.