Switch the lights on

Good lighting can make your garden glow at Christmas, Peter Dowdall reports.

GOOD lighting can make all the difference in a home, subtle back lighting and not so subtle spotlights illuminate different features in different ways. And, of course, the comfy armchair next to the standard lamp, just waiting for you to sit and enjoy the seed catalogues or whatever your choice of reading material.

So too in the garden, good lighting can really add that extra dimension. We have a very dark climate with long evenings at this time of the year and a bit of good lighting can really make the garden a place of beauty during the winter. Where to start? What features to focus on? What type of lights? Now I am not suggesting you go down the route of attempting to make your garden look like a scene from Santa Claus: The Movie, no, I am suggesting that you use what you have as a framework for good effective lighting. Please do not feel that your whole garden needs to be floodlit like the Aviva Stadium; no, rather work with what features and plants you have in your garden to achieve good effect and make use of shadow, too. Garden lighting doesn’t need to illuminate every inch of your outdoor space.