Garden Lighting: Three Low Points Beat One Floodlight
A single bright security light turns a garden into a car park. What to light instead, at what height, and the cheapest setup that transforms an evening.
A backyard is the only part of a house that changes shape on its own, which is both the difficulty and the point. Planting that looks sparse in April is doing exactly what it should; a border that looks finished on day one will be overcrowded by August.
The ideas here are built around that timeline. Structure first — paths, levels, the shape of the lawn or the decision to lose it — then planting that fills in at a sensible rate, then the things that make a garden usable after dark. There is also a good deal of attention paid to the parts people put off: drainage, screening a neighbour’s window without building a fortress, and what to do with the strip down the side of the house.
A single bright security light turns a garden into a car park. What to light instead, at what height, and the cheapest setup that transforms an evening.