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Landscape Lighting
By | June 27, 2008
With lighting technology soaring to new heights, the outer environment of a structure need not fade into boring darkness with the setting of the sun. The landscape surrounding the house is often as lovely as the house itself. For most, it is a prized procession worthy of being displayed and enjoyed at all times. Landscape lighting ensures that the beauty of nature is not lost in the dark.
Most landscapes are resplendent with natural charm and owner cherishes them as much as their houses. Lighting can create different moods and ambience in the world outside a structure, providing balance to indoor lighting as well as highlighting the beauty of the structure from outside.
There are various techniques of landscape lighting, each creating a different kind of mood and effect. Moonlighting uses a hidden source of light high up on a tree positioned to disperse the light downwards. This produces a subdued, romantic and tranquil moonlit effect. Silhouetting is done to accentuate the interesting shapes and forms of the branches of a tree, by putting the source of light right behind the object. The color and texture of the object is not seen; rather, a dark form provides a subdued dramatic effect.
Spotlighting is done to highlight the beauty of an object. Up lighting helps to display the beauty of trees and other architectural features, and can be repeated for symmetry and effect. Shadowing involves fixing a light source in front of the object of interest at various angles to create a light and shadow effect. Sign lighting, security lighting, down lighting, step and deck lighting, and walkway lighting are some of the other forms of landscape lighting.
Grazing involves positioning the light source to fall on the object at a sharp angle, and is generally done to highlight texture. Washing surface involves fixing a light source to fall at a blunt angle on the object. Water lighting is generally done from within to provide a rippling, reflecting and flickering natural or dramatic effect.
Landscape lighting should be done with due planning to bring out the desired effect. There should not too many dark gaps between the focal points, as these lead to a loss of visual interest. Landscape lighting can guide a person across a visual dimension, making him an active participant in the milieu created and relishing the mood reflected. Landscaping should guide the vision towards a destination (the house), creating a sense of depth that provides the greatest emotional impression. Landscaping should provide a sense of symmetry, and should appear interesting from all perspectives.
Home Lighting provides detailed information on Lighting, Home Lighting, Outdoor Lighting, Landscape Lighting and more. Home Lighting is affiliated with Ceiling Lighting Fixtures. -
Landscaping fabrics are by no means an answer to a no maintenance landscape. I know a lot of folks are under the impression that they can simply buy it, place it, cover it, and forget it. Forever.
First. There is no such thing as a no maintenance landscape. In many instances landscape fabric can make your life a lot easier. However, there is an upside and a downside to using it. And as with most everything else, proper installation and maintenance is required if you intend to use it.
Landscape fabrics have their applications. They aren’t necessary in all applications but might be preferred in regards to the type of groundcover you use.
Our company uses weed barrier in 95% of the designs we create. It’s the nature of our business as we use decorative rock as the preferred groundcover around here. When using rock for groundcover and path work, it’s necessary to have a separator between the soil and groundcover. Otherwise, you’ll have mud rocks by the first rain storm.
In theory you should be able to use almost anything as a separator. I’ve seen do it yourselfers use anything from plastics to newspapers and cardboard boxes to old carpet remnants. Of course, as a professional, I can’t use or even suggest something like this to my clients. You’re on your own there.
Now personally, on any given project, I would much rather do away with fabrics altogether. I prefer to create living soil planting areas that are mulched and tended rather than being covered and forgotten. However, some areas are simply too large to apply this method and some folks just outright prefer to cover an area with decorative rock.
Both mulched living beds and rock beds underlain with fabric will require some work to keep them beautiful. Neither is maintenance free. As long as there is wind, rain dirt, and blown in seed, there will be something for you to do in your yard.
When we create a design using landscaping fabric and rock, I make the client aware of a few things. 1) There will be blown in seed and dirt. 2) Something will have to be done about it to keep it from accumulating. I assure them that with the quality of fabric we use, nothing will grow in from the bottom. However, we have no control of what blows in on the top.
Spraying the unwanted weeds with herbicide will take care of the weed problem. However, this does nothing for the dirt, leaf, and plant particles that are hiding under your rocks. And if you allow these to accumulate, they’ll continue to accumulate and you will never get rid of them. So periodic maintenance is required even if you do use landscaping fabric.
Periodically using a blower on your bedding areas will slow down the accumulation of dirt and in some cases eliminate it altogether. How easy and thorough this is depends a lot on the type and size of rock you use.
Small pea gravel accumulates and holds onto dirt, and is harder to clean than rock of a 1 ?” + nature. Not only does it hold onto dirt but has a tendency to be blown all around when being cleaned with a blower. Pea gravel works well for paths, walkways, and smaller areas but I don’t recommend it for covering larger areas.
As far as using landscape fabric under bark and mulch covered beds? In many cases this can actually be easier to take care of than living beds or rock covered areas as it can easily be picked up and replaced every few years. This will keep your landscape always looking new without having to blow dirt or mulch beds.
Remember. There’s no such thing as a no maintenance landscape. Landscape fabrics can make things easier in many applications but like everything else, they require a little bit of keeping up. No, they aren’t necessary in all landscaping applications. However, I believe you’ll find them to be your best choice for many types of groundcover.
About the Author
Written by Steve Boulden. Steve is the creator of The Landscape Design Site.com which offers free professional landscaping advice, tips, plans, and ideas to do it yourselfers and homeowners. To discover more about landscaping fabrics, visit his site at: http://www.the-landscape-design-site.com
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Topics: yard-maintenance |
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