Highlighting Nature: Best Practices for Illuminating Trees and Gardens in Memphis

One of the most appealing and interesting elements to light in a landscape are trees and garden areas. These areas showcasing nature and all its glory are often favorites during the daytime hours. Most of us are drawn to nature and we inherently appreciate its beauty.

In the evening, these areas can take on a whole new look when the lighting is done well.

But that’s the key…that outdoor lighting for trees and gardens is thoughtfully designed and installed. Whether you are a homeowner looking for ideas to lighting your Memphis home or you are a property manager looking to illuminate your commercial landscape, the lighting decisions that you make for your natural spaces are important. 

In this article, we will share some of our best advice on outdoor lighting for trees and gardens so that you can make wise choices for your property.

What to Know About Tree Lighting

Using various lighting techniques when incorporating outdoor lighting for trees, you’ll be able to have different effects and different “looks” that add aesthetic appeal to your property.  

There are different lighting techniques that can achieve different results, depending on what you want to show off. 

Here are a few of our favorite tree lighting ideas.

• Spotlight a specimen tree with bullet lighting. If you have a really gorgeous specimen tree or maybe a beautiful shrub that you want to showcase, you can use bullet lights to highlight these individual features. It’s almost as though the landscape becomes art in these situations.
  
  
• Use uplighting to cast appealing shadows and showcase a tree’s beauty. With uplighting, the light fixtures are mounted somewhere on the ground and the light is directed upward to light up your tree. This is a great lighting technique on a tall tree and can really make a difference in your nighttime landscaping. With the light directed up the tree's trunk or at the canopy, it creates a dramatic and elegant effect. Uplighting often creates some appealing shadows for a unique look.
  
  
• Use downlighting to illuminate an area below while also lighting your trees. Another tree lighting technique that we love is downlighting. With downlighting, you are mounting the light fixture in the tree and illuminating an area below. This creates a “moonlight” effect. While this can achieve the functional benefit of lighting up an area (like a walkway or a driveway), it’s almost a unique way to light a tree. With the light fixture being mounted high above, it will cast shadows of the branches on the ground below, creating lots of visual interest. 
  
  
• Use a combination of uplighting and downlighting. Some of the best outdoor lighting for trees combines both uplighting and downlighting (plus maybe a couple of bullet lights to show off some particularly interesting trees). A complete landscape lighting design will showcase a variety of landscape lighting techniques.

What to Know About Garden Lighting

Outdoor lighting for gardens (like plant beds, container gardens, and other landscaped areas) is also important. 

When lighting these areas, selective decisions should be made in terms of where to place the lights and what specific areas to illuminate. We use a lot of silhouetting, shadowing, and highlighting when illuminating plant material.

Downlighting, which we talked about previously, can often work well when illuminating a garden area beneath some trees. 

We also use specimen lights (talked about above) and well lights, which are buried in the surface of the ground so light is visible without seeing the fixture. This can create some gorgeous shadowing effects from any taller plant material. Area lights can also be used throughout a plant bed to selectively illuminate the landscape. 

Both residential and commercial properties often have interesting container gardens in their front-of-the-property areas. These are great curb appeal additions but don’t do much after the sun has gone down. However, with some great landscape lighting, these features can be beautifully showcased. 

This is particularly helpful for HOAs and other commercial properties that have a front-entrance sign with landscaping. You want to make sure that these areas are well-lit and visible to those pulling in (or visible from the road).

Maintaining Your Landscape Lighting

No matter what natural elements you are lighting, you want to make sure that your outdoor lighting will hold up. Lighting maintenance is critical to this goal. We often tell people that good lighting maintenance is about protecting your investment.

When people think about “maintenance work,” they think about repairs. And there’s no doubt that repairs are part of the process. If something gets broken or a bulb needs to be replaced, these things need to be fixed.

But the best outdoor lighting maintenance work includes other important tasks such as repositioning a light as the landscaping around a fixture grows. After all, a landscape is a living and evolving entity. If your landscape lighting remains stagnant, you won’t get maximum value out of it over time.

Choosing Outdoor Lighting Services in Memphis

Getting the most out of garden and tree lighting boils down to choosing the best outdoor lighting service. Landscape lighting is so much more than just shining a spotlight on a tree or shrub. You want the design to be artistic and beautiful. All of that comes with the use of a landscape lighting professional.

You can incorporate a variety of ideas that help you make the most out of tree and garden lighting. For instance, we can use bullet lights to spotlight a specimen tree or gorgeous shrub, well lights to uplight a tree, and downlights to cast light down on a plant bed or garden area.

And these are just some ideas. We’ll create a custom plan designed exactly for your Memphis property.

We know that helping you to get the most possible enjoyment out of your outdoor areas, comes down to attractive and functional lighting. And we are here to help.

Are you ready to create a secure, functional, and beautiful property at any hour of the day? If so, let’s meet and discuss some bright ideas.