Colin Elliott is a locally based garden designer, landscaper
and horticulturist. He and his wife run the Design and
Landscape Centre with offices and showrooms within
garden centres in Caddington, Beds and Codicote, Herts.
During a career spanning thirty years Colin has built
gardens all over the region, his work winning awards at the
major RHS shows. His love of the subject is immediately
obvious to all who talk to him about plants.

I have been to so many garden shows this year, taking photographs and
collecting brochures, that my filing system is at bursting point. So many
new ideas, materials and plant varieties are on offer that it takes some
experience to see which are really useful additions to the gardening
repertoire and which merely temporary fads.

I am increasingly convinced of the value of lighting in the garden and if
the demand from my clients is anything to go by, so are many people. It
has all to do, I think, with the modern tendency to consider the garden
as part of the house; and to value and use it accordingly.

When the sun goes down so often that is it: darkness. Security lighting is
all too common but creative lighting in the garden is concerned with the
illumination of features to exploit texture, form and colour and to suggest
a sense of depth. Combinations of light and shadow can create dramatic
effects in complete contrast to the daylight scene. For a conservatory
owner this should be considered an essential.

Looking around the shows there has not been a lot of garden lighting in
evidence. Victorian lamps were displayed by one company and an
ingenious solar powered system by another. What remains are a
number of low voltage products from well- known companies like
Gardena and Hoselock, both better know for their watering systems,
and at the other end of the scale, garden lighting specialists Garden and
Security Lighting.

John Raine, one of the companies principal designers and well known in
quality landscaping circles, lives locally and has helped us with several
of our own gardens.

Good lighting, he will tell you, depends fundamentally on correct
positioning, selecting the correct lamp intensity and beam angle and
directing it away from view points and circulation routes. The key
objective is to provide interesting illuminated scenes or features without
seeing a light source at night or light fittings during the day.

Yes, he can sell you a lamp, but he'd rather create a lighting scheme.

Water is a prime candidate for lighting, whether moving or still.
Underwater lighting of a fountain or waterfall is always popular.
Glistening water and shimmering light can create fascinating effects,
while cross-lighting of marginal plants gives something more subtle. All
this assumes a crystal-clear pond system.

Water features made from urns or millstones are also ideal subjects for
illumination with small lamps used to highlight foaming or trickling water.
These are very popular and a worthwhile addition to any garden, but so
few are properly lit.

Plants can be lit in a number of ways. Vertical drama is exploited by
uplighting trees or large shrubs while "moonlighting" is a technique of
fixing lights in a tree to cast shadows of branches and foliage on the
ground. For large or dense trees uplighting rarely works well and cross
lighting to highlight the canopy or backligthing to reveal a silhouette may
provide the solution. Lighting a wall behind the tree will also create an
interesting silhouette if it has a suitable open structure.

Colour variations across the seasons can be exploit using a flexible
arrangement of lights which can be repositioned and refocused to
highlight the plants currently at their best. This is ideal for shrub borders
where a Rhododendron may be in flower for just a few weeks, looking
far less interesting later. Shrubs with strong leaf shape or sculptural form
may be subjects for prominent lighting to create striking features after
dark.

For the most natural effect we recommend using the white light
provided by tungsten halogen lamps. This light flatters the natural
colours of flower and foliage. The misguided idea of using coloured
spotlights to highlight a specimen plant is more lightly to make it look
like a Christmas tree.

When lighting focal points, the character of a statue or other feature
must be interpreted sensitively and lighting placed carefully if the subject
is to be exploited well. Uplighting from directly in front can produce a
washed out, two dimensional effect and can project strong shadows
onto the upper part of a figure from protrusions at a lower level. A
source to one side highlights form and relief with contrasting light and
subtle shadow for a fuller effect. Beware too the shadow thrown onto
the wall or hedge behind unless you have provided lower intensity
background lighting.

Although we would strongly recommend using only low voltage systems
in most circumstances, electricity should always be used with caution.
Qualified craftsmen should be used to install the mains voltage cables
bringing power to the transformer and they will be able to assist with
timing and switching solutions at the same time.

Professionally designed lighting schemes can bring so much extra value
to the garden and is far more than providing safety lights to steps or
illuminating a patio eating area (although both these things are
important). Working closely with a garden designer the lighting expert
can make your investment in the garden a work of art even in the dark.

Hertfordshire Countryside Magazine, August 1997.

Part of a monthly series by Colin Elliott.