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Installing a light Installing a light is strait forward Once you have chosen your light, how do you install it? We will assume you have got your lights, if not have a look at our lighting page Garden Lighting Most lighting kits are "low voltage" so we will deal with these, if you have mains lights, we recommend you get them installed by a qualified electrician, as there is a lot of work and dangers involved. Once you have your lights, ideally you should "work backwards" that is to say you decide where you want the lights to go then you connect them. You should also consider "the landing strip effect" you have say 5 lights, and you put them in a nice neat row, from above / distance it looks like a landing strip, why not use the lights to accentuate your garden's main features, say a statue or favourite plant, coloured filters can also change the "mood" of a light.
If you are lighting a path and the lights must be in a line then go for lights that either point downwards, or have a globe, (so diffusing the light) having a light point up is no good if you want to see where you are walking Most light "kits" allow you to secure the lights then connect them, the connection method depends on which make of light you have, so please refer to the instructions. Basically you can just dig down a few inches, drop in the cable and connect it to the transformer, but do be careful, not all transformers are suitable to go outside. The effect that you will get does depend on the type of light fitting you have for example to light a plant or tree you should use a "spot light" other types of light are good for lighting paths etc. Coloured lighting is also very good, but the best for plants is blue, believe it or not followed by green. If you want to light a tall plant or tree, you may find that the light you have chosen is not bright enough, unfortunately there is usually not a lot you can do about this since most lamps are only 5 watts (same as a car tail light) But some are brighter. In this case we would recommend a 20 watt light from our friends at Exclusive Fountains We can not say how much they cost, but they are not cheap, but they are very good. Pond lighting Unlike lighting your garden, the lights you choose must be specifically designed to go under water. Again we recommend our fiends at Exclusive Fountains Some pond lights come with integral lead weight to hold the light down at the bottom, if yours do not (and who wants a lead weight in a light anyway) we suggest you wrap the light cable around a heavy weight such as a stone If you want to light your fountain the we suggest you place the light next to the fountain outlet again coloured lights do look good. Caution should be observed as 99% of light transformers are NOT waterproof, weatherproof yes, waterproof NO! Sorry if this sounds like a free plug, but guess what, our friends at Exclusive Fountains can supply a transformer that can go underwater quite safely, but again it is not cheap, but then you do get what you pay for. Another place for a light is just under the fall of a waterfall. What ever lights you have why not fit a timer to them, which will cost more at the beginning but it will save you having to go outside to turn them off, and also save on lamp life. Why not send us a picture? At the beginning we mentioned mains lights should be installed by a qualified electrician, this is because cable that is carrying mains voltage must be of a special type Steel wire armoured is such a cable and it can be buried in the ground, but it must be a minimum of 18 inches below the surface and marked with "caution electric cable below" tape, also fitting the proper glands is not really a diy job, but if you do want mains lights, get several quotes first, when done properly it is only done once. please also be aware of part p
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