While you plan your garden lighting, why not think about the type of mood you'd like to create. When darkness falls, lights can provide a sense of drama while enhancing a home or a building's architectural features. Light fixtures can throw light up, down, or any direction you choose; it can be soft or dramatic depending on the mood you are trying to create. If you want an enchanting, dreamy mood in your garden, moonlighting is the way to go.

Moonlight and Fantasy

Outdoor tree lights hidden high in a tree create the illusion of moonlight. Mercury vapor outdoor tree lighting fixtures, or a flood light, placed high in a tree, replicate natural moonlight. They produce a soft illumination on objects below, creating light and shadows that illuminate and enhance. When the lights are placed high in a tree, the light diffuses down through the leaves and branches and casts elegant, mottled shadow patterns on the ground below. Moonlighting provides a soothing, cool, and enchanting glow dispersed over a wide area.

How to Place the Lights

The best tree for moon lighting is one with meandering branches, full leaves, and interesting bark. Your goal is to create a pool of shadows covering a broad area of the ground beneath the tree. Try not to place the lights more than a 25 to 30 degree angle from vertical because it may become a nuisance to your neighbors.To prevent glaring use louvers to help angle the light away fro the primary viewing spots and use low luminescence lights. Also, be sure to illuminate the trunk of the tree or else the branches may appear to float in the air, unattached from the tree. A photocell control can be used so that they turn on automatically when the sun goes down. These lights require climbing a tree, but the mood produced is well worth it.

Place a bench below your moon lit tree, and enter into fairyland.