You’re planning on expanding your backyard this spring to include lighting, hardscape features, and plant media, but you don’t know where to start when it comes to designing and planning the project.
A landscape designer is trained to take your dreams and turn them into a living space that you, your family and friends will enjoy. If you’re planning on adding outdoor lighting or you want to include outdoor lighting with your overall plan, you need someone who can envision the entire scope of the project. A hardscape project is more than the sum of its parts. For example, a designer knows that your lighting system needs to match your hardscape exteriors, as well as where to place the lighting’s wiring within the architecture of your outdoor rooms for safety and functionality.
Here are three reasons why you need to hire a landscape designer for your outdoor lighting project:
1) A landscape designer knows horticulture and he knows how to integrate lighting and plants together for maximum impact. For example, a landscape designer would use plants that are slow growing around lower path lights. If he installs bollard-style LED lights, your designer knows that taller grasses and flowers would fit better with that design. Additionally, a landscape designer can envision how the plants will look in six months, a year, and five years, as well as how to prune them to grow in a particular direction.
2) A landscape designer knows architecture and can design your entire outdoor living project into one, fluid, open area. For example, a designer knows what wattage light goes best with your entire hardscape and landscape plans. He can create your design and incorporate the following effects of LED lighting into your outdoor living space:
- Up lighting
- Down lighting
- Path lighting
- Silhouette lighting
- Focal Point Lighting
3) A landscape designer knows LED technology. He is capable of installing the entire electrical system during construction of your patio, deck, and other outdoor living spaces which may save you money compared to hiring subcontractors for each part of the construction process. And if you’d like to add outdoor lighting to your current hardscape, a landscape designer can also install the electrical and lighting systems even after construction is long finished.
A landscape design firm is considered a one-stop shop for all of your outdoor living needs. Designers are trained to incorporate plants, lighting, and other hardscape features into one continual space. They’re also able to handle the technical side by installing electrical and lighting wiring during the construction phase of your outdoor project.
Are you planning on building an outdoor oasis in your home this spring or summer? Or is your hardscape already finished, but you want to install a LED lighting system to your outdoor space?
River Valley Landscapes and Pools provides landscaping services to the south central Pennsylvania area. Call today for all of your outdoor living needs at 1-800-455-8666 or fill out the contact form.