Handmade: Add some light to your garden

Today I went to a lecture on how to light up your garden. The lecture was part of the arrangement “By light” that I wrote about a couple of posts back. The guy holding the lecture was rather pompous and more than a little boring and after 15 minutes my friend and I started to look for the door. Unfortunately we were weighed down by our photo equipment and couldn’t sneak out so we had to wait for the coffee break. Boring as it was I still learnt a thing or two that I like to share with you.

When you chose plants for your garden chose flowers, bushes and trees that look interesting or beautiful even during the winter season.

Walk through your garden. What do you see? What would you like to focus on? What can you see through your windows? Is there a tree, a brick wall or a group of dry or withered flowers that would look beautiful under light? The simple is almost always the most beautiful.

Never try to make night into day. To much light only makes the darkness behind it even darker and scarier. Instead try to make rooms of light in different places in your garden. To make the garden feel safe it’s always important to have a goal for the light. The light should travel towards something. If you for instance light up a path but the path ends in complete darkness then walking down the path feels unsafe. But if you can see a lit up flower or tree in the distance it feels like you are walking towards something safe and secure.

Use both warm and cold light. Cold light directed up a tree creates a glittering silver effect and a warm yellow light towards a brick wall can create an almost golden glow. If you place a spotlight up in a tree always let the light pass through at least one branch on it’s way down as to create shadow effects and spread the light on the ground.

Create a “place for possibilities” by letting a small spotlight light up a small space. It becomes a little scene where you can place all kind of things like pots of flowers, an arrangement of stones, sea shells, your old garden wellies or what your mood feels like.

Intensify the gardens own colors.

Well that’s when it was time for coffee…..and we hit the door.

Still what I learnt will come in handy at the country house since it is always pitch black there and ax murderers are know to wander about the neighborhood. Lurking in the bushes....The feeling safe part is important…. When we where finally out the door we went for a stroll in the beautifully lit park and naturally I had my camera and tripod with me…..