Passion for the craft: without this there is nothing

Passion for the craft: without this there is nothing

By Mike Gambino

I love trees and plants.  Seriously. I love beautiful landscaping.  I am an unashamed lover of beautiful spaces out of doors.  I love to read about landscaping.  I love to watch gardening shows on TV. I love to observe new and interesting plants and trees and how they are placed in landscapes. In fact no matter where I am I am constantly looking for new ideas, new ways in my mind to enhance the experience of the property owners and their guests when the sun goes down. I am constantly thinking how I am going to best illuminate the space, how many fixtures and which type, the spacing, the beam spread angles I would choose and so on.

 And I love to light landscapes. Did I mention that?

I love to try new ideas and concepts. In fact, there is a running joke in this business that you shouldn’t get attached to a lighting design because you will never be able to replicate it again. So many landscapes, so little time. Of course that’s not entirely true as every designer has their favorite effects and own signature style that they get to showcase on each individual project. But what it really means is that no two landscapes will ever look the same as each one is as unique as the DNA or nuclear and cellular characteristics in humans.

And because I love landscaping I love to design great landscape lighting schemes. I think I see them from an additional perspective than someone who does not appreciate beautiful gardens. Yes, you can memorize how spacing of spread lights should be on each side of a walkway or how high a fixture should be placed in a tree but I don’t think you really internalize those things and the whys of them in the same way if you don’t study gardens. Its a passion not just for the beauty of  every material I select for a landscape  but also for the practicality of them and the placement of each fixture and transformer.  

And the best clients to design a landscape lighting system for are those who share that same passion. I was lucky to have such a client recently and we designed a beautiful landscape lighting system for them. 

Because of the long narrow foot print of the house on the property and the established plant materials with aggressive root systems throughout the site, the installation was a little tricky to space plan. In addition, the sleeves installed under the concrete surfaces and installed years ago where no longer viable as they had become clogged with tree roots. So passing conduit and cable from one side of the garden to the other was very difficult when there was concrete between the two areas.

The clients wanted to be able to use their patio more often. They had placed temporary lamps around the space by using extension cords to power them. Not only did they look ugly and impractical but they were also dangerous being so close to the swimming pool. They wanted to extend the usable space of the family room and kitchen which are adjacent to the exterior patio space and invite people outdoors to enjoy the fresh air and temperate California climate year around. 

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They also wanted individually switched task lights , one for the overhead table downlights and one for a barbeque spotlight. There is also a third switch to kill the soft downlights over each column which provide ambience and indirect lighting for the patio.

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There is a fountain that is effectively spot lighted just to the side of the patio to provide the soothing sound of bubbling water.

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Behind and to the side of the pool are large Queen and small pigmy date palms which are accent lighted. Their reflected image can be seen in the surface of the pool water when the pool light is left off

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The frontyard also got its own treatment. The giant Queen palms are effectively uplighted to frame the steps and entrance to the front door. Several spreadlights are installed along the walk from the street and driveway to lead people to the door.

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Off course the fixtures and light sources are all 100% LED Gambino landscape lighting products.

This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .

Blog articles may be published with permission on other websites without editing or removing links.

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