Hi everyone! I’m new to landscape lighting and have been working on setting up VOLT lighting around my home for the past month. So far, I’ve installed 8 Fat Boys to uplight the three trees in my front yard, along with some uplighting on the house itself and 3 mini path lights Now that everything’s coming together, I’ve noticed that my front landscape bed looks pretty dark by comparison. The bed is oval-shaped, about 25 feet wide and 8 feet deep. I do have a Fat Boy uplighting one of the trees in that area, but I’m thinking of adding some Max Spread path lights to better highlight the plants and brighten things up a bit. Would that be a good choice for this kind of setup, or is there something else you’d recommend? Also, there’s a power box in the bed that I’d rather not draw attention to, so I’m hoping to keep that somewhat concealed. I’d really appreciate any advice!
Depending on the wattages/lumens you’re using overall, more lights in that area might be overkill. Sometimes less is more. But if you want to introduce more light to that area without highlighting the power box, I would go with two or three mini path lights with smaller beam spreads and stems no taller than about a foot. You could use these to highlight a few sections of the garden (like the ornamental grasses, for instance). A full size max spread has a 16 foot diameter and a 24” stem. If it’s placed high on that island bed, it’d likely not only highlight the power box but the fixture’s light source would probably be visible from the sidewalk as well. A night photo or a photo clearly indicating where lights already are might help me make more meaningful suggestions. HTH
Thanks for your help! I’ve attached a few pictures of what I’ve done so far. Everything is currently using 3W 2700K bulbs. I’ve installed three Mini lights along the walkway, and I’m wondering if I should add a fourth—just not sure if that would improve the balance or not. The front landscape beds look brighter in the photos than they actually are in person—they’re still pretty dark, which is why I’m considering adding some additional lighting there. I’d really appreciate any feedback or suggestions on how to improve the overall look and coverage! Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again!
By looking at the landscape beds at night how many and what type of lighting would u recommend? Would u stay with the Pathlight mini?
Thanks for taking the time to post more photos. Tremendously helpful. Just a handful of suggestions (which you should feel free to take with a grain of salt). First, I think this is a pretty decent lighting plan. Overall, I think you have about the right amount of light. My tweaks are basically about how and where you use your lights. For instance, you have a very light colored house. A significant amount of light is bouncing off that ivory colored facade and lighting up the areas immediately around your house. After you’ve lived with your lights for a while, you might find that those 3W are more than you want/need. You might also decide that it’s just fine and leave things the way they are. At a minimum, I recommend you vary your lighting brightness from area to area. Good idea to keep your brightest lights on the house and then downshift as you move away from the house. This approach creates depth and adds complexity to your lighting plan. Another way to make your plan more interesting is to use different lighting techniques throughout. I noticed that the foliage on those two trees in the foreground is pretty dense. Instead of trying to uplight them both the exact same way, consider installing a spot or flood outside the canopy of that tree on the right and illuminate it partially from the side. I think I can see from the photo taken from your walkway what you meant about the darkness of that island garden in front (more on that shortly). Further to what I stated earlier, there might be sufficient light reflected from the lights on your house to allow you to use fewer path lights there on your pathway. There might be enough brightness that you don’t even need to use any path lights there (and you can then instead use those path lights elsewhere). But if you decide to keep your path lights there, I highly recommend you bringing them back at least a few inches from the edge of the path. I can tell you from experience that the mail carrier or UPS or the person installing your new refrigerator or cabinet will knock one over at some point. Better safe than sorry. While we’re on your path, that’s an interesting looking plant (cactus) in an attractive pot. A nice place to install a mini spotlight to show off either the plant or pot or both. And guess what? I actually love the idea of you showing off the electrical boxes in that garden. Everybody knows they’re there already and illuminating them would make an interesting backdrop for those ornamental grasses there. I believe you’re not allowed to paint those but there’s no reason you can’t paint them with some light. Another place for some compact spotlights. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could even try some colored bulbs and illuminate them with your favorite subtle or intense colors. Or you could just stick with lights in the warm white range. Either way, you’ll make a statement. But if that idea seems too out there to you, you could add some light there by placing a couple of compact, low-profile well lights to highlight the garden so that that area isn’t so dark. Yet another way to add interest is to illuminate different flower or tree and shrub foliage in your yard. I like the way your box woods are silhouetted with the lights on your house as a backdrop. But you could also showcase those by uplighting a few or all of them if you like. You could do that with compact spotlights or compact well lights. At the end of the day, though, these decisions are simply a matter of personal preference. You might like all, some, or none of my recommendations. That’s the great thing about having your own space you can design exactly the way you like it. HTH
On the tree on the right it’s a fat boy spot light 3w 2700 should I keep that and add another one to the left where your arrow is? Change the wattage? What is your recommendation?
So I was throwing a few ideas out there just to get your creative juices going. There’s any number of ways you could vary your light intensity. You could keep the 3W on the house and use 2W on those trees (and for the “fill” light I mentioned, you could use either a second 2W or a 1.5W). You could make either of those trees in the foreground the “star” of your yard, if you want. Is one of them a favorite? Does either one flower in the spring? What will this one look like illuminated in the fall? What will that one look like when it snows (assuming it snows where you are)? You don’t have to light the tree from that side the way I indicated. Maybe you want to light it from behind, so you can see more of the foliage illuminated when you’re inside of your house. Or maybe you want to light it from the front, so that passers by can see it lit a certain way. See what I mean? Think about what you want to see when you come home and what you want to see when people walk, drive by, or visit. If you have it in your budget, I’d experiment until you found an effect that works for you. One way to do that is to try out a couple of the adjustable beam spread bulbs (so you can see what effect various beam spreads have on different structures, plants, trees, and other objects. The color changing bulbs (which require a remote) are pricier than the general purpose bulbs but they offer a lot of bang for the buck. Not only are they dimmable but they can be grouped with other color changing bulbs so that you can create different lighting zones in your yard. Meaning, you could control your paths as a group or the lights on the house as a group or the lights on the trees as a group, etc. My general advice is to experiment with different approaches, live with them for a while, and then if you decide you don’t like a certain approach, you can always tweak your plan until it’s exactly the way you like. HTH
I repositioned the Fat Boy spotlight to highlight the tree on the right, as shown in your diagram, and also moved the other spotlight beneath the same tree slightly to the right.
I really appreciate your help—thank you so much! I’m known as the guy in the neighborhood with the best-looking yard year-round. Living in South Texas, we really only have two seasons: hot and cold (no snow here, thankfully!). The trees usually lose their leaves for a couple of months around December, but the grass stays a light green through the winter. I also swap out my annual flowers seasonally—summer to winter and back again—and most of the other plants stay green throughout the year.
Always glad to help. Your design sense is impressive. I’m in the middle of the east coast and we get everything here. I’ve recently started to encourage people to think about the features of their homes and landscaping they like throughout the year and to plan their lighting accordingly. Since you’re using VOLT products, you should definitely consider submitting some of your photos on the other forum and for the contests they announce. There may even be one going on now. Feel free to post your questions anytime.
