Design Today

2 Responses to “Garden Lighting: Design, Inspiration, Techniques”

1. Jody Says:
   March 20th, 2010 at 3:54 am

   A year or so ago, we did some major garden renovation, painted the exterior of our house and the perennial garden had its fifth birthday and celebrated by exploding into blossom. Summer evenings on the patio became a habit and I began casting around for lighting ideas. Professionals wanted to add enough light to do brain surgery at enormous expense, and solar lights weren’t bright enough, no matter how many we installed. Kits didn’t contain the right combination of components (no landing strip pagoda lights, please) and there was the color issue–we both really dislike the bluish tint of a lot of big box store lighting, and some of our friends had horror stories about the expense and durability of some brand name kits. So what to do?

   I did some research and two books were repeatedly recommended; this one and another that sells for just under a hundred dollars. Being cheap (which is why I’m doing this myself) I purchased this one, and I can’t imagine that the other one containes any more useful information than this one. While most of the pictures are of very elaborate landscaping, some taking lighting to an unnatural extreme, the real juice of this book is in easy to understand explanations of electricity, wiring runs and types of fixtures. Referring to this book, and using the pictures only as illustrations of what different fixtures can do, I was able to lay out a low-voltage lighting plan for the patio and yard in about three days. All the components are readily available, either through home improvement stores or the internet, and if you know what you’re looking for, at a much higher quality and only slightly higher price than some of the brand names kits. I’m looking forward to enjoying some rather (ahem) innovative lighting effects next summer!

   This is that rare bird; a genuinely helpful do it yourself book (though it recommends having a licensed electrician do the work, my plan is low voltage, and since I can’t electrocute myself, why pay big $$$?). It won’t do the work for you, but is a terrific investment if you have the time, inclination and patience.
   Rating: 5 / 5

2. Joseph T. Masciotti Says:
   March 20th, 2010 at 6:43 am

   At last, an up-to-date replacement for Ortho’s 1984 “How to Design & Install Outdoor Lighting”. This is a thorough overview of lighting techniques, system design and the variety of lamps and lampholders used in both line voltage and low voltage outdoor lighting. Despite the usual disclaimers (the Brits must be as litigious as Americans) about having only a qualified electrician install garden lighting there is useful information for the DIYer.

   This is not an installer’s manual but it does provide sufficient information to enable one to grasp the essentials of lighting design’s dependence on the proper lamp type as the key to success. After all, lighting fixtures are just lamp holders and the effect is in the lamp not in the fixture. Many well-photographed illustrations of lighting techniques are provided with explanatory captions and backed up with colored drawings to reveal detail. I was surprised to see charts of lamp types drawn out-of-scale but there were accompanying photographs to put them back in perspective. Credits were in source order so it is difficult to track a photo to its source i.e. if you want to know who was responsible for a photo on page 107 you have to scan the entire acknowledgements section. No equipment credits are given although some of the photos look like catalog pix and the experienced eye will detect products not currently available in the US. The book cover shown above is not the cover on the book I received which shows a rather pedestrian garden walkway with pagoda (!) lights and a faucet and coiled garden hose instead of the sumptuous Japonisme entry.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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