Inspiration for your garden lighting

The secret to beautiful garden lighting is a "multi-layered" approach.  This means using different types of lighting to diversify effects.

Diversifying types of lighting

Outdoor lighting can be deployed in three layers:

• Mood lighting - this form of lighting has no other purpose than to create a mood. Like background music, you know it's there. Like lanterns or fairy lights hanging from a fence or tree.

• Useful lighting - this lighting has a specific purpose. For example, lighting a patio staircase, a barbecue or dining table, or a small reading corner.

• Accent lighting - used to highlight a particular area of the garden, for example, a central tree or a pretty flowerbed. This usually involves deploying several spotlights.

When adding night lighting to your garden, don't try to imitate its daytime beauty and colors. Instead, try to create a "different" garden. Made of contrasts, enchantment and silhouettes. In this way, your garden becomes a more mysterious place at night.

Tips and ideas for your outdoor lighting

• Even if your garden is tiny, you can make it look bigger with spotlights. They'll "open up" the space.
• Using a light with a blue filter will make the green leaves of the trees more intense.
• As well as illuminating favorite areas of your garden, use darkness to hide the parts you don't like and need to take care of.
• Arrange your lighting to add depth to your garden
• Spike-mounted fixtures are easy to move around, which is very practical when plant growth obscures the lighting.
• Make sure your spotlights don't shine directly on a neighbor's window!
• Colored lights - and yellow in particular - are ideal for keeping insects of all kinds at bay.