Home Gardening

Outdoor lighting
Garden Tips Newsletter - July 23, 2001

A great way to accent your home and garden is to install outdoor lighting. Outdoor lighting can serve several purposes: it can provide security, accent, and depth to your home and landscape. Traditionally, outdoor lighting has been a way to improve security around the home either with floodlights and/or porch lights. While these are still an essential part of outdoor lighting -- lights can now be used to accent your home, specific trees or plants or your landscape in general. Some specific ways to achieve special effects are through downlighting, uplighting, and backlighting. Downlighting is achieved by orienting lights from above to shine down on objects such as pathways, driveways, stairs, and decks. Downlighting imitates natural light and adds a nice touch to these areas. Uplighting is attained by placing lights at an angle and lighting an object from below. Uplighting adds depth to trees, landscape features, and areas of the house. Backlighting silhouettes an object of interest, such as a tree, shrub, and/or statue against a lit surface. To silhouette an object, angle the light against a wall or fence behind the object. Note: nighttime lighting may affect the dormancy, flowering, and pollination of some plant species -- research whether lighting will affect the plants in your yard.

These archived newsletters were written by Dr. Lelia Scott Kelly. Kelly is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.