Dark Skies – Garden Design & Modern Lighting for Rural Areas
As Garden Designers we will be asked to design lighting schemes for customers who want to enjoy their beautiful well-lit gardens into the evening and throughout the year whilst getting the most from their investments. You could argue that illumination in your garden is almost like having two different gardens.
However, particularly in rural areas benefiting from Dark Skies where the ambient light levels are very low, any form of artificial light is light pollution potentially affecting wildlife and their natural feeding cycles and reproduction amongst other factors. The International Dark Sky Association has some fantastic tips on minimizing impact, some of which can be used in a garden environment.
One opportunity is to zone the lighting within a design, only lighting the area(s) that needs it at any given time, rather than having a system where all the lights in the scheme must be on at once.
Be no brighter than is necessary. We don’t want floodlights anyway. We want to create a subtle, warm lighting that draws the eye to specific areas of interest. LEDs are becoming ever more efficient, and you are really aiming at Lumens close to the 75 range, not 400! You want to minimise stark blue light emissions and aim for the warm white feel – something closer to the 2700-3000 Kelvin rather than the 6000k+. This can be a very effective and modern way to design your garden.
Garden Design Lighting and Techniques
There has been a tendency to employ lots of up lighting in designs, shining up into trees or against sculptures for example. I am not saying this has to be totally eradicated, but there are fittings that will help shield and minimise the glare levels and also focus on the target rather than spilling into the surrounding area. You can also use down lighting very effectively, even in a tree shining down rather than up, or along pathways so that the light is angled downwards cast lighting across the surface.
The final point I’ll make here is usage. As we no doubt say at home ‘don’t leave lights on in rooms not being used’ the same applies in the garden. You can manage your gardens outdoor lighting scheme through a mix of timing settings and sensors to ensure lights are not left on when not needed or if forgotten to be turned off.
Hopefully, we can use a range of techniques available to us to minimise the impact we have on Dark Skies whilst still enjoying beautiful gardens at night.
Garden Solutions in Hampshire
If you have any questions on this or anything else garden design related please contact me at info@dpgardendesign.co.uk or refer to our services page for all garden design packages and solutions related information. We extend our professional garden design and gardening services throughout Hampshire, such as Winchester, and surrounding counties including Surrey, West Sussex, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire and so on.
