As with any lighting project it is important to think about the shape of the objects being lit. This is, perhaps, even more true of garden fountains. Gardens at night take on new shapes and shadows. When you want to illuminate part of it, you must think about what else may be altered by new shadows. While a well-lit fountain can be a beautiful addition to a yard or garden, poor lighting can leech away color and shading and make your garden seem flat and even spooky.

Kinds of lighting

Explore the products that are available to your price range. Outdoor lighting has as many options as indoor lighting and there are many things to consider from fixture finish to lens color to size and shape. To help choose what kind of lighting you need, try visualizing the way different lights will alter your garden fountain. Many basic outdoor lights are simply floodlights that will do very little to make your fountain pleasing at night, but there are other kinds of more subtle light that could be strung around an area to add delicate reflected illumination with your fountain’s water. Remember the main point of lighting a fountain is to create a reflection off of the water.

If you are setting lights around a large fountain like this one, () be careful not to place the lights to close the base. This will create stiff shadows and harsh angles that will look unpleasant from a few feet away and rather blob-like from further away. Make sure to place lights from a distance that allows their light to reach over the main tier or bowl of a fountain. If you are using a fountain that rests low to the ground, as this one does, () try using slightly raised lights around the edges to reflect light down onto the pool of water and up toward the spout. Try to catch the water in the light as it falls to reveal the shape the entire fountain. There are light fixtures that can be placed inside the fountain underneath the water. These can have a delightful effect in shallow fountain water as they reflect and refract under the constant changes of lightly falling water. It is important to light the area evenly, using at least three lights creating a triangle around a central pillar or one large light in the center of a bowl shaped fountain. With a fountain like this one, try inserting a light below the water under the second tier, illuminating this shape from beneath may have a bold and interesting effect. () Make sure to choose lights that are intended for underwater use.

Colored lights and Textures

Various lens are available for different fixtures. Colored light can be interesting, but it can also be distracting. Colored lights usually have less spread than ordinary lights and will provide less illumination. They can also be quite gaudy when used poorly. Use colored lights carefully and sparingly if you don’t want to distort the apparent texture and shape of the elements in your garden. For example, a heavy green lens will make a rough stone look oddly porous while a red light may create the appearance of greater depth than is actually present. Blues tend to leach away depth and create spaces that appear flat. None of these conditions are certain however because every texture responds to light differently.

Lights on!

Even if you intend to only light your fountain, you will be adding light to your entire garden, so you must look at the space as a whole. If you make the light in your fountain too bright it will overrun the quieter elements of your garden, and usually not in a positive way. If it is too dim, it will inevitably look in disrepair. And of course, everyone has their own idea of what looks best. Light attracts the eye. It also leads the eye. Use this principle as you look at your lighting choices and envision their positions. Is there a natural (and hopefully smooth and graceful) line that connects from one point to the next? If not, it is your job to help create this line (or the suggestion of a line/shape/swirl) to guide the viewer through the frame of your yard. Your space is just as much a canvas as any painter’s, and the light within it must provide interest and be a part of the whole.