Illuminate Your Garden: Embrace the New Era of Ambient Outdoor Lighting

Gone are the ubiquitous spike lights that make blobs of light in the shrubbery. A new approach, with the emphasis on ambience, is changing the way our gardens look and feel after dark; we asked landscape designer Franchesca Watson to shed light on the latest trends.

I have a little water feature just outside the window in my living room, and it makes a backdrop to my drinks tray. It’s lovely and simple – a square stone base with a metal disc nestled into the top, from which water tumbles. I’ve lit it from above the window and directed the light down onto it to create a diffused halo-like effect, and the whole area has come alive.

Lighting outside important windows in the house at night adds great appeal to what’s beyond the windows, as well as preventing them behaving like mirrors reflecting one’s silhouette. I will sometimes light a water feature from beneath the water if the water's clear; but when doing this, take care to conceal the light source from the most direct viewpoint, or you merely create an unattractive blind spot.

Lighting garden sculpture requires careful consideration, particularly if the sculpture is set on a lawn or a paved surface. In these circumstances light fittings are difficult to disguise, and can distract from the overall effect of the sculpture. Setting lighting discreetly into a plinth that supports the sculpture does help, but this often necessitates that the plinth be quite large. If it’s called for, I will plant beneath a sculpture to conceal the light fittings.

The planting also diffuses the light, creating a soft glow as opposed to the spotlight effect of old. If the lights can be placed out of sight, perhaps on a wall or a tree, it's often better to illuminate sculpture from above. I once worked with lighting designer Paul Pamboukian to light an enormous sculpture. He came up with the great idea of setting boulders around the sculpture, making cracks in them, and then housing the lights within the cracks, which then shone out onto the artpiece. It was magnificent.

Here are my top pointers when lighting your own garden or special outdoor space:

• Stairs and walkways always need lighting.

• Keep your light fittings discreet, and remember it's what you’re lighting that needs the focus, not the light fittings themselves. The latest look for stairs and walkways is the new flat fittings, perfect for installation at ground level. They shine at a low level, only illuminating the walkable surface. If there’s a handrail, it’s a great idea to conceal the light source in the handrail.

• Don’t overdo the LED strip lights or the strings of fairy lights; they’re starting to feel a bit outdated.

• When it comes to colour, my rule used to be to stick to warm white. However, there are many new options now, and sometimes it pays to be adventurous!

• Look for special light fittings. My favourites are bendable fittings that look like flowers or pods on top of flexible stems. I wind them into feature plants to create a spray of lights at various heights. Also great is to mount a series of cool white lights unobtrusively in a tree or trees, which together give the effect of a full moon on a clear night.

• Lighting designer Tredeaux Grobler made me aware of light-absorbing gravels that can be mixed into concrete. During the day they absorb sunlight, and at night they shine like a starry sky.

• I'm loving movable solar bollard lights. They are simply designed, very hardwearing and have several settings. I set mine to come on when the ambient light drops, and others I leave to respond to movement and light up when I come in close proximity to them.

• Of late, I favour light fittings made of brass or copper. They weather and become beautifully disguised in the garden.

Text by Franchesca Watson