Garden Lighting: Ponds and Waterfalls

Although this article targets landscape contractors, the homeowner will also find useful info on enhancing outdoor water features for maximum nighttime enjoyment.

Garden lighting is the fastest growing niche market for the landscaping industry. Revenues grow each year in high-double to low-triple figures for companies that specialize in it.

And now, the fastest growing niche of THAT niche is lighting for water features - ponds, waterfalls, streams - giving the homeowner a soothing sanctuary at night and providing a nice side-benefit of increased property value. (One recent study cited a 93-cent PV gain for each dollar invested.)

Garden lighting also appeals to homeowners because they tend to want the water features to be the focus of their landscapes. The amount, forms, colors, and positions of lights are all considerations for the type of effect that you want to create. With the wide variety of lighting options available now, you're only limited by your imagination.

Types of Garden Lighting for Water Features

The two basic types of lighting fixtures for water features are underwater and aboveground fixtures.

Underwater lighting is principally used to illuminate the contents of the water, such as fish, rocks, and underwater plants. Underwater lights can also create a glow effect, say for a backlit waterfall. They also provide a safety benefit by marking the body of water at night to prevent accidents.

The key to effective underwater lighting is keeping the water clean, otherwise you can end up with a feature that's murky and unattractive.

"There are all kinds of things you can do to create a sparkle in your water," says Jerry Allison, president of Jerry Allison Landscaping, Inc. in Santa Cruz, CA. "Bio and mechanical filters, UV lights and so forth all contribute to making better water clarity. That's crucial for underwater lighting - but it isn't hard to get."

If the water is less than clear, a better choice might be to use aboveground lighting to create a reflection off the water's surface, or to place lights pointing upward around the water feature to produce a dramatic inverse reflection. Aboveground lighting fixtures can be positioned at various angles to enhance the overall landscape and compliment the water feature.

"If you're lighting from above, you can have 'the blue (or green) lagoon' and it will look like a big black mirror and create a whole different great effect," suggests John Binkele, Vice President of Business Development for manufacturer FX Luminaire. "If you have some color in the landscape and bounce the light off the water, it creates the color on the water feature itself."

The sudden growth in garden lighting for water features includes new materials used in making the products. Along with brass, copper and aluminum fixtures that have been available for some time, manufacturers are now increasingly offering composites (plastics) that are more durable and less expensive. It's expected that these new composites will explode on the scene, similar to what happened when PVC first appeared in the early-1980s and revolutionized the irrigation industry.

Another form of garden lighting for water features that's becoming popular involves using fiber optics. These fixtures have no electricity at the light strands, and generate no heat at the illumination point (a bonus for sensitive plants). These intricate lights are ideal for creating both subtle and stunning effects in water features, with artistic flexibility that allows the designer to explore new possibilities and create visual stimulation not possible with other types of lighting.

Part 2: Creating Dramatic Effects

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