8 Unique Uses for Garden Spot Lights

When they’re used appropriately, garden spot lights are among the most versatile lights in any budding landscape architect’s arsenal. Because they are so powerful, there are many, many different effects that you can achieve with them. These can range from subtle lighting to more bombastic in-your-face lighting styles. They’re easy to install and widely available and cheap, especially from many different sources online, so let your creative juices run wild coming up with all sorts of ideas for them and don’t be afraid to experiment with them to try to get effects that will be unique to your garden.

Use #1: Up lighting

Up lighting is the most conventional, vanilla way of using outdoor flood lights. But it is so conventional for a reason, because the look that it creates is so compelling. Up lighting an object casts it in a new light because it reverses the way most people see it during the day with the source of light coming from above it. Without the sun, the light comes from a flood light at the bottom, spraying more light up at the top of the tree as opposed to at the bottom. This effect is at its most compelling when used with large tree spot lighting.

#2: Down lighting

Down lighting is the exact opposite of up lighting. Instead of pointing a garden light up at an object, you attach the light high up above the viewer and shine the light down. This is most often used to light pathways and other highly trafficked areas because it creates a “pool” of light on the ground. Try attaching your spot lights to high trees, poles, or the side of your house to create this effect.

#3: Cross lighting

There are three different dimensions, and also three different directions that you can point your garden spot light. With cross lighting, you place the light source to the side of an object and shine the light across it. This can be used for spot lights to shine on statues, walls, trees, flowers, and a wide variety of other objects in your garden.

#4: Grazing

Grazing is a special kind of cross lighting that is used most commonly on walls or other objects that have an interesting texture to them. With grazing, you place outdoor flood lights almost parallel to the wall and let the light graze across the wall’s surface. If the wall (or other object) has some texture to it, such as stucco, it can create some interesting shadows and effects.

#5: Moonlighting

If it’s done right, moonlighting can create a powerful effect in your garden. Unfortunately, it can be incredibly hard to achieve. To effectively use moonlighting, you need a spotlight mounted with several other dimmer lights high up in a large tree. You then down light these fixtures through the branches of the tree. If the effect is done right, you should be able to see the shadows of the branches of the tree on the ground below, just like it looks with a full moon on a clear night. The splattering of light can be used as a much more attractive alternative to other forms of garden path lighting.

#6: Washing

Normally in garden lighting, less is more. Not so if you’re trying to achieve a washing effect. If you want this effect, you need a blank wall and an object in front of it that you want to highlight. You take one or two spot lights and spray as much light on the wall as you can, washing it out. This creates a canvas-effect that the object in front is then imposed on when you stand in front of it.

#7: Silhouetting

Silhouetting is another powerful effect that you can achieve with garden spot lights. If you are silhouetting an object, place a spot light behind it to back light it. When viewed from the front, this will create a giant silhouette with the light popping out from around the object. It works best when you apply it to trees and shrubs.

#8: Mirroring

The eighth and final effect that I’ll list that you can create with spot lights in your garden is mirroring. This is another very attractive and compelling effect. With mirroring you need an object or wall in front of a body of water, such as a small pond or swimming pool. You then shine the spot lights directly onto the statue or wall. The light will bounce off of the object and land on the body of water you have positioned. When this happens, it will show the image of the object, just like in a mirror. It’s a very interesting effect that you can achieve with a wide range of objects.

This just scratches the surface of the different ways that you can use garden spot lights. No two yards are the same so make sure that you look at your yard and think about how you can use these effects, or a combination of them to show off your garden in the best possible light under the stars.