Lighting gives you two landscapes in one. By selectively lighting focal points and use areas, you bring the best points of your landscaping into focus while letting everything else fade into obscurity.
As landscape designers, we look at all use of a garden – both day and night. Properly applied, lighting will make the landscape glow, without hot spots that detract from the overall view. The right light in the right place – not too close to the subject, but not so far as to lessen the light’s effect – is key to creating a softly luminous landscape.
We’re in the middle of a lighting revolution. The light bulb and its variations are finally obsolete, replaced with long lived, energy saving LEDs. LEDs make changing bulbs a thing of the past, and use much less energy than the incandescent lamps they replace.
Better yet, they come in a wide variety of shapes: linear, spot, glowing square… so light can be applied precisely for the optimum effect. Many high end fixtures can be programmed to wash walls or structures with intense colors.
The other side of the revolution is transformers. They’re becoming more connected, often allowing you to program your outdoor mood as you’re sitting in your garden. Since LEDs require less voltage, their transformers can be smaller, too.
Contemporary patio
By day, this patio is pleasant enough, but the wall to the right isn’t very interesting (it’s the neighbor’s wall, so we couldn’t paint it nor add sculpture). Nothing is highlighted, and every element of the design appears of equal importance.
After darkness, the water takes on an ethereal glow. The formerly blank wall to the right is decorated with shadows, and increased contrast brings drama.
Where window light spills out, landscape lighting isn’t always needed.
Mid-century modern entrance
This front entry is bold enough by day, but the path is just another path, and the inset lights are just a motif. It’s not even obvious that they’re lights.
By night, lighting built into the path guides visitors to the door, bracketed by scones set on the walls. There’s also a security function at work here, since anyone walking up the path will be highlighted by multiple lights.
Southwest Fantasy
Pool and patios 
Across the pool, lights project shadows of twisted tree trunks onto a blank wall. The cactus is lit but the agave in front of it is not, so that the agave’s leaves become a silhouette against the lit cactus. Some spaces were deliberately left dark to create contrast and make the highlighted areas stand out even more. (click on the image to view the panorama) 
art wall, day 
art wall, night 
From farther away, the niche lighting silhouettes people sitting at the patio, surrounding them in a warm glow 
evening view of the garden 
Exotic nightscape 
These niches glow warmly at night, inviting people to sit in the nearby outdoor sofa, sip some wine and enjoy some hors d’oeuvres.
Although the plants’ forms are dramatic, the overall effect is uniform. Comfortable, interesting but not something exotic and ethereal.
Closer up, the pindo palm becomes a fountain of light. The unlit fountain fades into the background, with the water sound accenting the night.
The nocturnal effect brings exoticism, transforming the palm into a glowing sculpture.
A specimen prickly pear flanks a series of lit alcoves displaying a succulent arrangement and ceramics. (see “prickly pruning” for more info about the cactus)
There’s an art wall, too. It works pretty well night and day, but night adds dramatic highlights and shadows.
When you’re considering installing some new landscaping, don’t forget to set the stage for night, especially if you live in a warm climate where you’ll spend a lot of night time in your outdoor spaces.
And don’t be surprised by the amount of fixtures you might need to get things looking right!