Good afternoon all. I’m looking for any recommendations for the border of this flowerbed. The first picture you can see leaves big dark spots, so I temporarily used two top dog mini spots. Still too dark and patchy. I was thinking about using the 4 essentials pathway lights mounting inside the garden bed. Would this be a good option, or should anything else be considered. Thank you all in advance
Hi, Stewart. If I understand, you want to more evenly illuminate the shrubbery along the perimeter of that garden bed such that it's filled in something like the greenery in the first photo or the stone column in the second photo, correct? If so, the ideal fixture type to create that amount of coverage is a flood light. You could, in theory, create a similar effect by simply lowering or removing the glare guards on your spotlights but the maximum beam spread lamp available for that fixture is only 60°. So you'd need more than likely need several of those mini spotlights to achieve the same effects as you would with just a few flood light fixtures. Multiple path lights could also work but what you want to keep in mind is that the vertical coverage created by the path light fixture will only reach to just below the height of the bottom edge of path light's canopy. To see what I mean, refer to the photo of the path light. In the case of the Essential kit path light, that height would be about 2'. If that's as high on your shrubbery as you want/need the light to reach, then that option could work for you as well. What would I recommend? I'd go with flood lights that are a brightness level or two below the brightness of your spotlights. The flood light have a frosted lens which "soften" the appearance of the foliage on your shrubbery and you'll also create a contrasting light level. To see what I mean, compare the effect of the light on the stone column compared to the effect of the clear spot light on the tree trunk to the left of the column. In any event, floodlights will give you the coverage you need (and with fewer fixtures) and also add more dimension and complexity to your lighting plan overall. HTH
