What landscape lighting covers
Landscape lighting is the low voltage system that lights everything outside the walls: trees, beds, walks, steps, the front of the house and the back yard. A transformer plugged into an outdoor outlet steps household power down to a safe low voltage, and buried cable runs it to each fixture.
- Tree uplights for live oaks, magnolias, palms and crepe myrtles
- Path and step lights for walks, driveways and paver patios
- Facade and column lighting that grazes brick, stucco and siding
- Garden and bed lights for shrubs, palmettos and planters
- Moonlighting: fixtures high in a tree aimed down through the branches
Why it suits Gainesville yards
A lot of Gainesville homes sit under big live oaks and laurel oaks hung with Spanish moss. Those trees are the best thing to light. A pair of uplights on a broad trunk throws light into the limbs and the moss, and the whole yard reads as a scene instead of a dark lot.
Older canopy streets and newer subdivisions both benefit. On an older lot, the job is usually about the trees and a long front walk. On a newer lot with young trees, the facade, the entry and the beds do more of the work.
How a design comes together
A good design starts at night, from the street and from the places you actually sit. It picks a few strong focal points, adds just enough path light to walk safely, and leaves some darkness so the lit parts stand out. Brighter is not better: glare in the eyes is the most common mistake in outdoor lighting.
Warm white, around 2700K, flatters brick, stucco and foliage and feels like home. Cooler white tends to look harsh on a house.