Glow-in-the-dark events at RHS Gardens, Kew Gardens, and other outdoor venues that offer a spectacular winter festival of lights make for an evening to remember, but how about bringing some sparkle home?
There are many ways to spruce up your own garden, using outdoor lights, lanterns, and warm, pleasant hues to cheer you up on cold nights and create a festive mood.
“Don’t think about decor, think first about the atmosphere, the mood and the feeling you want to create in your garden,” advises designer Andrew Duff (andrewduffgardendesign.com), Inchball, Co-Chairman and Director of the Council of the German Garden Designers Guild. School of design.
“If you want a laid-back, festive, pastel look, how are you going to get it? You may not need to cover the tree with garlands. You may want to do it in a more subtle way.”
Kevin Martin, Head of Tree Collections at Kew, said: “One of the best ways to add holiday lights to your garden is to wrap LED pea lights around the trunk and branches of any tree in your garden. It’s Christmas at Kew Gardens. Always very popular and will draw attention to your garden during the long dark winter nights as well as highlight the beautiful structure of the tree.
“Another approach is to use lights on the ground pointing directly at the canopy and protruding from the trunk. Again, be sure to use LEDs, as halogen bulbs generate heat that can damage the bark during the cooler months,” Martin adds. “Good trees for lighting in winter are birches with their bright white bark. Another big tree that stands out with light is the Tibetan cherry tree with bright red bark. Maple, especially snake maple, can also work well.”
Duff advises: “Roll up a ball of fairy lights and attach some balls to a tree to make them look like giant snowflakes, it really works.
“You can also get big snowflakes, which usually have solar panels that charge during the day and then light up at night, which could be a good option.”
“The flashlight is a brilliant idea,” Duff continued. “Think about where the light will fall. If you go outside to drink a glass of mulled wine, maybe just brighten up the dining area, you can also decorate it.
“Keep it soft and subtle. Instead of over-illuminating, you just want the area to be subtle and soft. You can use candles in a lantern. What you get with candlelight is a wealth of softness and brilliance that can’t be replicated any other way he added. “You can even use scented candles with Christmas scents.”
“Choose warm white light with a hint of yellow to create a warm and traditional look,” advises Matthew Potage, curator at RHS Garden Wisley (rhs.org.uk). – Pure white light looks cooler and more traditional. , perhaps “winter”, not “Christmas”.
He adds that the clean approach of all warm white light gives a very timeless and elegant effect, but if you want a kitsch, retro look, you can mix all the colors.
Duff added: “I’m a big fan of sticking to one color whether it’s white or off-white, but nothing says Christmas quite like red on the outside. Maybe you make all the lights on the tree red, which creates a beautiful red.” . light. But when you start mixing a lot of colors, everything kind of falls apart.”
“All structural elements can be beautifully highlighted with lighting, such as a pergola, seating area, or decorative tree, but just go back to the atmosphere, not the decor. Less is more is the key to creating magical spaces,” says Duff.
“Solar lighting is much better, but if you’re going to turn the device on and off, the battery-powered LEDs are great and last a long time, of course, as long as you need them at night. Then there is no electricity. requirements,” Duff said.
Pottage says network lights – string lights in network cable systems – are the fastest and easiest way to light up trimmed shrubs, hedges and clippings. “The use of LED lights, which have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, are powerful and have low power consumption, which helps the environment and your energy bills,” he noted. “Slow flashing lights create a magical feeling – fast flashing lights tend to be less peaceful in garden landscapes. Turn on a timer to save on energy bills and reduce the risk of wildlife disturbance.”
“If you have dried grass leaves and perennial seed heads in the winter, they catch the light and always reflect the light of a candle if you are around,” Duff advises.
“Alternatively, look for sculptural lights that sit on sticks about a meter high and place them in plantings, but let them be white or transparent, because then browns or yellows will come through, and not be colored by colored lights.”
“Nothing says Christmas like gadgets, we need to have fun, but maybe just stick to one or two colors on the tree,” he suggested. “We’re not trying to create a Christmas tree – it’s something that happens inside – so the simpler the better.”
Post time: Nov-15-2022