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By: Stewart Catso
Web site: http://www.lamps-n-lighting.com
When Glen Blandy looks at a house and garden at
night, he sees it as a scene on canvas just waiting
for an artist to paint it - with landscape lighting.
Which isn't surprising, since this landscape
lighting expert started out as a high school art
teacher about 30 years ago.
His medium may have changed, but Blandy still
sounds like an artist as he talks about negative
and positive space, perspective, highlighting,
shadowing, and all the other effects that create
what he describes as a dynamic nightscape.
Many of these were on display last week at the
Philadelphia Flower Show, where Blandy worked
on the lighting for Paths to Paradise, an exhibit
by Stoney Bank Nurseries in Glen Mills, Delaware
County, Pa., that won best-of-show honors for
nursery owner Jack Blandy, who is Glen's older
brother.
Stoney Bank's display, like many others at the
flower show, is a source of ideas for savvy gardeners
and homeowners, not only on useful plants and
interesting hardscaping, but on how to show them
off to best advantage, even after dark.
One exhibit after another at the show illustrates
how well-placed lights can accentuate a plant,
highlight the texture of a tree's bark, bring
the depths of a pond to life, or make a path seem
almost magical.
On a basic level, lighting is important for safety
and security, says Glen Blandy, but it can also
increase enjoyment of your home and garden.
Lighting creates an inviting mood, he says, that
can entice you into the garden even if you don't
get home from work until after dark. And its appeal
isn't limited to one season.
A lot of people think it's just for the summer,
but this is a beautiful idea year-round. Imagine
waking up to a snowstorm, or an ice storm, and
seeing the lights glistening off limbs or trees
- it just can't be described. It's one of the
most beautiful sights you'd see in your life.
Even frost or fall leaves or a fine misty rain
- there's so many things that are accentuated
by lighting.
In the Stoney Bank exhibit, he says, the effects
include path lighting, uplighting, downlighting,
silhouette lighting, and grazing.
Silhouette lighting is achieved by illuminating
a wall behind plantings, so that at night the
dark outline of a plant is silhouetted against
the warmly lit wall. And grazing is the effect
you get when a light just grazes the surface of
a structure, such as a wall, to accentuate texture.
Then there's the one-of-a-kind lighting that
is a collaboration of artists - metal sculptor
Greg Leavitt, who created the arch at the Stoney
Bank exhibit's entrance, and glass blower Will
Dexter, who formed the glass flowers that adorn
it. Blandy provided the illumination.
Blandy has worked on the Stoney Bank exhibit
at the flower show for many years, including about
15 while he was employed by his brother.
That was when I got involved in lighting, he
says. I had an interest in it because it was almost
like painting with light, so I took different
courses and began doing more and more. ...
A few years ago, he went into the lighting business
more or less full time with his own company, Creative
Visual Environments in West Chester, Pa. The business
wasn't exactly new; he had operated it part time
for years, designing stores and offices and doing
visual merchandising.
Anyone can have lights in the garden, Blandy
says. His company has installed them at properties
ranging from a small courtyard garden in Philadelphia,
where 10 to 12 lights, a transformer and installation
might cost $2,000 to $2,500, to a large suburban
estate, where hundreds of lights and many transformers
could cost $70,000.
There are kits for as little as $100 that do-it-yourselfers
can buy from places like Home Depot. Quality of
fixtures varies with price, of course, from cheaper
plastic to more expensive brass and copper, which
are likely to last longer.
Whether you hire someone or do it yourself, there's
more to it than sticking a few lights into the
garden. People make the mistake of having a bright
post light, thinking they are lighting the walkway,
Blandy says. But usually that light is at eye
level, and it blinds you so that it's harder to
see the path because of the glare.
More effective are path lights, he says. The
traditional mushroom variety, which can be very
decorative, throws light down onto a path; but
small half-moon lights are more effective for
steps, as they throw light across the surface.
Avoid the runway effect. Too often, says Blandy,
people put lights evenly along both sides of a
path, which makes it look as if they're waiting
for a plane to land. On a straight path, a couple
of lights at the beginning and a couple at the
end will do, he says. And it's a lot more interesting
and attractive if you stagger the lights.
Less is more when it comes to lighting the exterior
of your house, too. You go by some homes and they're
lit up like a prison or something, Blandy says.
You don't want to light your house evenly across
the front, because that flattens it. Highlight
specific areas, such as a chimney, and leave some
of it dark.
In the garden, positioning a light in a dark
area can illustrate depth. But lights can also
bring a garden to life at night. Uplighting, for
instance, can pick up the color of a flowering
shrub or tree, or even a rose growing in front
of a pillar, as it does in the Stoney Bank exhibit.
For interesting shadow play, use uplighting or
downlighting to create patterns of leaves on large
pots or walls.
Check the lighting effects from inside as well
as out. And make sure none of your lights are
blinding your visitors or shining into your neighbor's
windows. They shouldn't hit a viewer's eyes straight
on ... so you should check all the angles from
which your lighting will be viewed, Blandy says.
Even glaring porch lights can be a problem. They
should be softened by frosting the glass or using
a lower-watt bulb, he says. Even if that's the
only light you have, it's a lot more effective
if you can accent an area such as the steps for
safety, rather than having it shining (directly)
at you.
Blandy also stresses safety when it comes to
installation, such as positioning all wires at
least eight inches below ground where they cross
lawns, and making sure all connections are as
watertight as possible, because any moisture reaching
a wire can cause corrosion, which reduces the
power to lights.
Landscape lighting is low-voltage, which uses
less electricity, he says. A lot of landscaping
uses 12-watt lights; the most powerful he uses
is 36 watts. But beware of voltage drop, which
can do odd things to your lighting. Voltage lessens
the farther the electricity travels through a
wire, so don't overload a transformer with too
many lights. Rule of thumb is not to go much over
75 percent of a transformer's capacity.
Say a lamp or bulb is designed to burn correctly
at 12 volts, he says. If it is getting less than
12 volts, the light will have a tendency to start
to turn orange, which is great for Halloween but
not for everyday functionality.
Before you hire somebody, Blandy suggests, ask
for references and look at photographs of jobs
the installers have done, or ask to drive by a
landscape they've lit. And he has advice for anyone
doing landscape lighting:
Take photographs of where your wires run, so
you don't dig into them next time you add a shrub
or tree.
Don't use bulbs that exceed the recommended wattage
of a fixture.
And be sure no lights are covered with mulch,
to prevent fires.
- Use lights to accent plantings, paths, ponds
or aspects of your house, not the whole thing.
- Imitate nature by creating light and dark
areas in your landscape. It adds interest and
depth.
- Stagger lights along straight paths. It looks
better and costs less.
- For safety, install lights at any change along
a path, such as elevations, steps, or curves.
- Check lights from all angles. You don't want
to dazzle visitors with bright lights at eye
level.
- Make sure lighting looks good from inside
the house, not just outside.
- Allow for growth. A tree you highlight now
may be twice as tall in a few years.
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