Our designers take a lot of time and effort to make sure your garden looks good all year round, whether the sun is shining or not, but there's another time that your garden needs to look good that some people forget about, and that's in the evening and at night. With the right blend of permanent feature lighting, decorative lighting in contemporary finishes and even candlelight, you can give your garden a magical glow.

Lighting for ambience

Ambient lighting can be used in a variety of ways to create a special feel, or make your garden look totally different at night. Use uplighters to shine against the back fence or wall – this draws the eye to the end of the garden, making it appear larger. It's also a great idea to use uplighters to highlight trees to really give height to the garden. Stainless steel wall lights are a great idea to highlight your house too, giving an interesting view from the garden back to the house. There are also some fantastic newer types of lighting, such as LED strips, which when used sparingly, can give a beautiful glow from the underside of a deck, or in combination with a water feature to create stunning sheet of moving light. Finally, you can finish the look off by simply lighting some tea lights and placing them on your garden table or placing hurricane lamps around the garden for a relaxing soft glow that's sure to evoke memories of holidays abroad.

Lighting for practicality

So, you've set the mood with ambient lighting, now you need to make sure you've got the right lighting for the practicalities of your outdoor space. The first and perhaps most obvious choice is a floodlight. Coupled with a Passive Infra Red (PIR) detector, these are an important security consideration, allowing you to survey your garden from inside the house. They are also very useful for trips to the bins, when you need access to the shed and for that bit of late night watering when the grass is starting to get dry.

Marking out areas of the garden is also useful, and there are many stylish lighting solutions to choose for this purpose. Why not try building lights into a rendered wall to shine directly onto steps, or placing stylish stainless steel bollard lights either side of a pathway?

Multi-Trade's electricians are fully qualified and where appropriate NIC / EIC, ELECSA or NAPIT accredited and can undertake a variety of electrical work in your garden, and can also work with our garden designers from the outset to ensure that your electrical needs are built in right from the start.

Accent & Spotlighting

This a great, and quick way to add drama to a landscaped garden. Position intense and focused lights near the base of a sculpture, tree or near a rendered wall. For maximum dramatic impact this technique is best used sparingly.

Downlighting

Downlighting is an effective and affordable method for security outdoor lighting. To illuminate large areas position bright spotlights on or near the roof of your property. To light a pathway, mount smaller luminaires near the ground.

Cross Outdoor Garden Lighting>

If your aim is to show off a beautiful statue or an old gnarled tree, you'll love the soft flattering light that is produced by cross garden lighting. To do this, position a spotlight on either side of the object you wish to illuminate. The multiple beams of light produce softer shadows and reveal more detail.

Path and Outdoor Lighting

There is perhaps nothing more beckoning that a well lit garden path. Place low level on either side of a path or or walkway. As an added benefit, path garden lighting provides a safe walkway that can add an element of home security.

Shadowing and silhouetting

If you have a tree or statue with a striking profile in front of a wall or other surface, shadowing can be a very elegant way to add some drama to your outdoor space. Place recessed luminaires in front of the object to create shadows on the surface beyond. Silhouetting is the opposite of shadowing, this garden and outdoor lighting technique is equally as simple. Just position a recessed luminaire behind and below the object to create a spectacular silhouette.

Spread Lighting

If you've invested in landscaping your garden with flower beds and low shrubs, you'll want to enhance its nighttime appeal with spread lighting. To do this, position luminaires to illuminate low lying landscaping and ground cover.

Uplighting

If a canopy of branches covers your garden, try this technique, place recessed garden and outdoor lighting luminaires in the ground and angle the lamp upwards. The illuminated branches or architecture will provide an interesting point of visual interest and reflect a soft light onto your garden and patio.

If you're serious about turning your garden into an entertainment or relaxation zone you'll want to create a space that you really want to spend time in. Outdoor speakers are a great way to keep guests entertained or for listening to calming music with a good book.

Modern outdoor speaker systems can be either wired in or can run wirelessly using an MP3 player or IPod as the music source and can be positioned anywhere for maximum flexibility.

An outdoor cinema isn't as grandiose as it sounds, but can be a fantastic way to spend a summer evening rather than being cooped up in the house!

Simply by creating a white rendered wall and building some housing for a projector, you can create a place that's as large or small as you want it to be, and as the price of projectors has come down in recent years, it can be really very affordable too, and will lend a real 'wow' factor to your new outdoor space!