Product Description

A practical and inspirational guide to using lighting to maximize enjoyment of your garden; Lighting solutions for patios, eating areas, conservatories, roof gardens, pathways and terraces; Lighting techniques for different effects; How to choose lighting hardware, from solar power to fluorescent lights and projectors; Colour photographs of stunning schemes show how to achieve the effects you want; Practical advice on safety, wiring, power and planning considerations; Artworks showing the practicalities of lighting, including wiring pond lights

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122592 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
With today's current trend for turning the garden into an extension of the home, we now spend more and more time outdoors eating, relaxing and entertaining. Having designed our garden, furnished it with tables, chairs and container plants, many people think that's it. But the next logical step is to extend the hours you spend out there, which in most people's case means the evening. The addition of garden lighting provides just this. Whether designed to light up a path or patio, highlight a sculpture or particular plant, or merely to provide light to eat by, lighting can transform the most mundane of gardens. The soft hues of a lantern add a romantic touch, creating an intimate atmosphere. The subtle positioning of a spot lamp adds drama to a border or pond. The possibilities are endless: tree fairy lights, underpath or underpatio lighting, lanterns, lamps, spots and floating lights are all easily available today. Solar-powered, battery-run or mains electric, the choice is wide and suit a variety of locations. Many are easily installed yourself, requiring only the basics of electrical skills. Look at garden lighting as a means of adding interest and not just as a practicality. Theatrical effects can be achieved with careful placement, casting shadows and intriguing silhouettes. Yes, lights outside front doors are necessary but with a bit of imagination inspired by this book, even that can be transformed into something special and welcoming to guests. Apart from inspiration and design, this book provides clear instruction in the practicalities of choice and installation, ensuring the right product is chosen for the right situation. Well illustrated and diagrammed, this is an informative basic guide to this modern form of gardening. - Lucy Watson

About the Author
John Raine has spent the last 20 years in the lighting and electrical industries, more recently specializing in garden lighting. He has designed lighting for hundreds of private gardens. He lectures frequently to garden designers and students and contributes to professional journals on the subject.

Customer Reviews

expert opinion
At last, an up-to-date replacement for Ortho's 1984 "How to Design & Install Outdoor Lighting". This is a thorough overview of lighting techniques, system design and the variety of lamps and lampholders used in both line voltage and low voltage outdoor lighting. Despite the usual disclaimers (the Brits must be as litigious as Americans) about having only a qualified electrician install garden lighting there is useful information for the DIYer.

This is not an installer's manual but it does provide sufficient information to enable one to grasp the essentials of lighting design's dependence on the proper lamp type as the key to success. After all, lighting fixtures are just lamp holders and the effect is in the lamp not in the fixture. Many well-photographed illustrations of lighting techniques are provided with explanatory captions and backed up with colored drawings to reveal detail. I was surprised to see charts of lamp types drawn out-of-scale but there were accompanying photographs to put them back in perspective. Credits were in source order so it is difficult to track a photo to its source i.e. if you want to know who was responsible for a photo on page 107 you have to scan the entire acknowledgements section. No equipment credits are given although some of the photos look like catalog pix and the experienced eye will detect products not currently available in the US. The book cover shown above is not the cover on the book I received which shows a rather pedestrian garden walkway with pagoda (!) lights and a faucet and coiled garden hose instead of the sumptuous Japonisme entry.

Great How To!
A year or so ago, we did some major garden renovation, painted the exterior of our house and the perennial garden had its fifth birthday and celebrated by exploding into blossom. Summer evenings on the patio became a habit and I began casting around for lighting ideas. Professionals wanted to add enough light to do brain surgery at enormous expense, and solar lights weren't bright enough, no matter how many we installed. Kits didn't contain the right combination of components (no landing strip pagoda lights, please) and there was the color issue--we both really dislike the bluish tint of a lot of big box store lighting, and some of our friends had horror stories about the expense and durability of some brand name kits. So what to do?

I did some research and two books were repeatedly recommended; this one and another that sells for just under a hundred dollars. Being cheap (which is why I'm doing this myself) I purchased this one, and I can't imagine that the other one containes any more useful information than this one. While most of the pictures are of very elaborate landscaping, some taking lighting to an unnatural extreme, the real juice of this book is in easy to understand explanations of electricity, wiring runs and types of fixtures. Referring to this book, and using the pictures only as illustrations of what different fixtures can do, I was able to lay out a low-voltage lighting plan for the patio and yard in about three days. All the components are readily available, either through home improvement stores or the internet, and if you know what you're looking for, at a much higher quality and only slightly higher price than some of the brand names kits. I'm looking forward to enjoying some rather (ahem) innovative lighting effects next summer!

This is that rare bird; a genuinely helpful do it yourself book (though it recommends having a licensed electrician do the work, my plan is low voltage, and since I can't electrocute myself, why pay big $$$?). It won't do the work for you, but is a terrific investment if you have the time, inclination and patience.