10 May Key Elements for Installing Landscape Lighting Systems That Perform
By Mike Gambino
When renovating a home or commercial property, one often-overlooked property improvement is landscape lighting. Lighting is a major component that adds tremendous value not only to the property owner but to the property itself as well.
If you’re looking to include landscape lighting in your new landscaping or garden remodeling plans , there are three key elements to keep in mind: Safety and Security, Function and Aesthetic Beauty.
Provide Safety and Security for occupants and visitors.
We talk about slips and falls a lot when it comes to inclement weather and uneven surfaces, but we tend to overlook how accidents can happen all year round even during perfect conditions due to low visibility at night and not enough light.
Most all properties can benefit from ambient lighting from the landscape lighting system to guide occupants and visitors, and arguably most landscapes will benefit from additional lighting that makes people feel safe in an otherwise dark space.
Adding spread and path lights along driveways or walkways can help your clients avoid stumbling in the dark and potential injury. It’s also important to make sure that pools, sloped areas like hills, stairs and ramps, uneven surfaces, changes in grade are properly illuminated. Even if you have a property with primarily flat surfaces, it is important to have proper lighting to guide the paths around the landscape.
Enhancement of Landscape Features and Amenities
Lighting is great for drawing attention to the most impressive areas of your property, making sure people can see them not only during the day but also at night.
Using a variety of lighting types can create striking effects on the landscapes. Up lighting, which is simply light that points up from the ground or low placement, can subtly or dramatically be used to draw attention to walls, trees and garden features like statues, ponds, water features and special plants.
Down lighting can be used to cast shadows down on walkways to create a moonlight effect or for additional area lighting in a space where it’s needed and appreciated. Additional upgrades to the functional lighting system include dimming and color options to create a variety of custom scenes in the landscape.
Add greater aesthetics.
After deciding on the functional lighting of the space as a base or starting point, you can start to add more lights to create aesthetically pleasing lighting around the yard.
Set up lights in major areas like patios, water features or garden statues. Adding a combination of up/down lighting can create dramatic scenes to increase the impact of an ordinary landscape. Strategically placed lighting features will also make a new landscape project look much more mature and substantial. It can make larger properties look smaller and smaller properties look larger when then proper techniques are employed by a seasoned and talented landscape lighting designer.
When you incorporate lighting that serves all three key areas (safety and security, function and aesthetics), you can spend more time enjoying your investment with family and friends. Thoughtful lighting placement will give viewers a whole new aspect of their landscape once the sun goes down.
If you’re looking for help with your lighting projects or thinking about adding landscape lighting to your business or commercial property, contact Mike Gambino for more information.
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 29 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 .
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