Renewal Oils & Genesis Gateway Integration

Lighting the Moon Garden

Lighting is an important factor in creating an effective moon garden. Obviously, the garden is designed to come to life by the natural light of the moon. More often than not, this moon is not in a phase or position to illuminate our moon or evening garden, or is obscured by clouds. For these times lighting plays an important part in fully enjoying our garden once the sun goes down.

Artificial lighting can not only supplement the moonlight when it's not in play, it can also accomplish lighting techniques that even the moon can't deliver. It can be positioned to emphasize highlights in the moon garden such as selected plants, accents or features. It can be utilized to create shadows and silhouettes that play with the light and dance against the backgrounds, amplifying and distorting shapes and forms and creating visual lines that lead to mysterious places.

Accent lighting is available in fanciful shapes like hanging lanterns and butterflies, further setting the mood in the garden. Strategically placed low level lighting can highlight specific areas of interest in the garden, and can guide the night wanderer to points of interest and identify a change in the path, while spotlights can be used to highlight features or uplight interesting forms. Artificial lighting can even be used to simulate the light from the moon itself if suspended from above, for example if hanging from a tree over a private sitting area or on the rafters of a pergola.

The type of lights can also alter the mood of the composition. Christmas twinkle lights or fairy lights provide a filtering effect which makes the outdoors come alive. The ability to control artificial lights can lead to special experiences for the senses. By turning them off, the sense of smell becomes more receptive, revealing many hidden scents emanating from the dark night garden. Likewise the sense of hearing is heightened, and the magical sounds of the night are augmented when carried on a light breeze. Through an aesthetic combination of plant selection, spatial design and a creative and sensitive use of exterior lighting, you can develop an outdoor garden which will be pleasant to relax in during the evening and night.

Power Source

The best power source for decorative lighting is safe and inexpensive to operate. Solar lights cost nothing to operate because they are powered by the sun and a battery, so they require no wiring. You can place them wherever you want in your garden, as long as they receive plenty of sunlight to power them at night. Low voltage lights are also inexpensive to operate, but they do require wiring. They operate at just 12 volts, and may be a better choice than solar because they won’t fade or fail to light up on overcast days.

Path Light Fixtures: These fixtures come in a wide variety of shapes, and are generally made out of plastic, powder coated aluminum or copper. They are used to illuminate sidewalks and pathways, driveways, and low shrubs or flowering plants. They typically use a “brake-light” style bulb or a bi-pin quartz halogen bulb in low voltage or line voltage systems. They also come in solar fixtures.

Bullet Fixtures: These fixtures are in the shape of a bullet. The smaller ones usually contain an MR-16 bulb, which is a slide projector bulb, and are best used to spotlight small shrubs or number signs. They are often part of a low voltage lighting system, though some are used in solar applications, usually with LED bulbs. Larger bullet fixtures are commonly used in line voltage systems and contain regular household type spot and flood bulbs, as well as mercury vapor and metal halide bulbs. They are used to illuminate walls, the façade of the house, and large trees and shrubs.

Deck Lights

Spot Lights

Well Light or Canister Fixtures: These fixtures are contained in a 4-6 inch canister of heavy PVC, are designed to be partially buried and are used to illuminate walls, the façade of the house, and large trees and shrubs. They typically contain a PAR36 bulb, which looks a lot like the older style automobile headlight bulb. PAR36 bulbs come rated for use in either low voltage or line voltage systems.

Box Light Fixtures: These fixtures are rectangular, and are generally used with line voltage systems to illuminate larger areas. They frequently use metal halide or mercury vapor bulbs.

Solar Lights

Hanging Lights

Twinkle Lights

Determining which type of lighting system to install is dependent upon factors such as quality, value, and cost.

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