Just because it’s winter for the next few months, it doesn’t mean your landscaping has to look bleak and uninteresting, and you don’t have to wait until spring to showcase your beautiful yard again! You’ve put so much time, effort, and hard-earned money into achieving your dream landscape, and it can still shine in the winter months even when the sun isn’t shining or when everything is covered with umpteen inches of snow.
Here are our top 5 ways to brighten your landscape this winter:
1. Perform proper maintenance: Before you do anything else, it’s time to do your winter outdoor lighting maintenance. Grab a cleaning cloth and take a walk around your yard one night and notice which light bulbs need to be changed. If you’re using LED lights, changing bulbs should take very little time. Then use that cloth to remove any dirt and debris from and around your lights so they can shine brightly all winter long. And don’t forget to perform any needed system maintenance as soon as possible too.
Click here for more on proper maintenance and our yearly checklist→
2. Light your pathways: With daylight savings, it gets dark earlier and earlier. During this time of year, people are often out and about when it’s dark outside, so make sure your pathways are adequately lit not only for safety but to showcase that new winter coat your landscaping is showing off this season.
From time-to-time or during your maintenance, check to make sure your pathways are lit properly for this time of year and make any adjustments necessary so you can get the most out of your winter landscape lighting AND keep your winter visitors safe (more about this below). Don’t forget that if you use a timer, adjust it for daylight savings so your lights come on when the sun goes down, not after.
3. Adjust your angles and amount of lighting: The parts of your landscaping you want to showcase during other seasons of the year—either for safety and/or aesthetics—might be different in the wintertime. If you see that bare branches are being highlighted, adjust the angles of your lights to instead focus on other interesting parts of your trees and plants, or other plants and trees that have foliage in the winter months. You might also need to lower some angles to highlight some areas of your landscape that aren’t the stars of the show spring through fall. If you find that you need to eliminate some lighting for winter, disconnect those bulbs AND make a note to remind yourself to reconnect them when spring is on its way.
If you decide to make more major changes to your pathway lighting, click here for our top 5 tips →
4. Adjust or add additional uplighting: Uplighting—ground level/lower placed lighting that is focused upwards—can be used to add dramatic effects to your winter landscape (or any seasonal landscape, actually), shining the spotlight—literally—on areas that might not be the focus other times of the year. Think structures, evergreen foliage, and other interesting aspects of your yard that might take a back seat to those colorful blossoms in spring, summer, and fall. Not only can uplighting add drama to your landscaping, but it can also brighten and warm up your yard, making that cold and often dreary part of your property more inviting for everyone. Hot chocolate and marshmallows in the backyard anyone?
5. Highlight Lights During Snow Removal: While we might be dreaming of a white winter, with all those beautiful flakes comes snow removal. Be sure and let your plowing company know as early as possible where your lights are located so they don’t get damaged, causing costly and annoying repairs. You can also purchase flags or poles to show the person shoveling or plowing the location of the lights. A little proactivity can go a long way here, and your snow removal professionals will appreciate you giving them the heads up so they can do their job easily while still protecting your valuable lighting system.
Want even more tips to keep your landscape lighting bright and warm this fall and winter? Click here for our top 9 landscape lighting tips for fall and winter prep.
If you have more questions or need help brightening your winter landscape, we’re happy to help! Fill out our contact form, and we’ll have your winter landscape showcasing its best light possible before the holidays arrive!
