Runway Lights

In the landscaping world, just like any other profession, there are those little things that “do it yourself” guys do that make the pros cringe. They are our “nails on the chalkboard” experience.   I, like many of my colleagues, have my personal pet peeves. Let’s go through a few of them and hopefully you can gain some insight as to how a professional landscape designer looks at your landscaping.   By avoiding or correcting your landscape mistakes you will have healthier plants as well as knowledge that can give your home that extra something. This will make your neighbors stand up and take notice and hopefully show some of the guys who call themselves “pros”, why these things are not helping to achieve the goals of good landscaping. The topics we will discuss include:  Green Meatballs; The Green Necklace; A Whole Lotta Nothin; Seeing Red; The Minnie Pearl Syndrome;  Crape Murder; Runway Lights; Volcanoes; and The Real Thing.  We will be addressing these issues over the next several newsletters.   This month we will tackle “Runway Lights”

This is the all too common approach to landscape lighting, and it refers to the tacky lights that line America’s sidewalks and driveways. Some of them are “solar powered”. This comes across as nothing more than outdoor “nite lights”. Unfortunately, this is what many homeowners think of when they think of landscape lighting. This is like thinking of an ice cube when talking about an iceberg. Landscape lighting is supposed to be the practice of highlighting the landscape with light that makes it come to life after dark. It extends the homeowners ability to enjoy his outdoor spaces for a longer period of time. Properly designed, it can make the outdoor nighttime a magical place in one’s own backyard. It can also add curb appeal, even at night, by highlighting your home’s front exterior. Many different lighting effects can be accomplished with low voltage LED lights such as wall washing, moonlighting, shadowing, uplighting, downlighting, path lighting etc. Talk to a professional landscape light designer and leave the runway lights at the airport.