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Outdoor Lighting Information Outdoor Lighting Information
If you have invested your energy in creating lovely outdoor spaces such as gardens, arbors, patios or fountains, then you certainly do not want to make the mistake of leaving the job half-done. While many people design exterior spaces or landscape under the assumption of full sunlight, specialty outdoor lighting can add an entirely new dimension to your work. Imagine lustrous gardens that flourish magically beneath the moonlight, ancient trees that glow luridly as you pass them in your midnight stroll, or fountains that bubble with luminous crystalline water, spraying starry droplets into the sky. These are a few fanciful images that can be made into a reality by an artfully designed outdoor lighting system.
If you are looking at a small to medium sized job, or are a novice and want to create a lighting system that you can install yourself, we have a number of low voltage outdoor lighting fixtures available. Our Halogen Accent outdoor lighting kits are designed to illuminate specimen trees, plants in the garden or architectural details of a home or office building. We also have low voltage outdoor lighting kits fitted with incandescent bulbs for projects that require a warm light. For larger jobs, we More >
Residential Landscape Lighting – Lighting Up Your Yard
Residential Landscape Lighting – Lighting Up Your Yard by Albert Lee
Lighting up your lawn is not just as simple as it looks. Well, if your objective is to flood the whole yard with light and just drown everything in one big flash, then by all means just prop a big floodlight in the middle of your lawn and just let it shine.
Of course this time, you would be able to see everything until the corners of your compound, but you wouldn’t be able to appreciate the “curves” and enhance the design of your landscaper. Your lawn would look more of a stadium or a prison because of the high intensity light that falls on every nook of your territory.
If you want to justify the love that your landscaper has dedicated to it, then you might start envisioning it to look like more of a park. Accenting areas with subdued lighting is the way.
The placement of the lights is important. Placing them on the broad side of the landscape curve will drown out the little spaces that it converges with the rest of the land design. A subdued effect is best achieved with the positioning of light behind a More >
Tips For Winterizing Your Sprinkler System
Green Valley Nursery’s construction division is here to help with your sprinkler system. This is a great article on some of the things to consider when winterizing your irrigation system.
by Stacey Moore
The grass is always greener when it gets plenty of water. And to make sure your lawn is ready to go-and grow-in the spring, it’s essential to make sure that your sprinkler system survives the winter.
Homeowners may not realize that in-ground irrigation systems are susceptible to harsh winter weather. Fortunately, there are just a few simple steps to get your sprinklers ready to weather Jack Frost’s deep freeze.
First and foremost, does your sprinkler system run on an automatic timer? If so, be sure to shut down the controller before the cold winds blow through. Many systems have a “rain” or “off” mode that turns off the signals to the valves. Even though the sprinklers don’t activate-because the valves are closed-the system retains all programming information (start times, valve run times, etc.) and continues to keep time.
Another option is to shut the controller off completely; however, this generally wipes out any programming information that may be stored in the system, so you’ll have to reprogram everything once the ground More >
Home Improvement & Remodeling Magazine
by: Julie DeVorss
After years of waiting to remodel the interior and exterior of their home, an El Dorado Hiill’s couple decided it was time to take advantage of the slower economy and use their saved up funds to invest in remodeling their front and backyards. Five years ago the homeowners got a bid on replastering and re-tiling their pool and decided to wait. A year ago they’re neighbors across the street got a front yard “facelift” for their yard, which inspired them get a quote to remodel their own outdoor spaces. They knew that they could take advantage of lower pricing and probably get more for the same amount of money they would have spent five years ago on their pool. For example the cost of two-colored stamped colored concrete in 2005 was anywhere from $9-12 per sq. foot. You can now find that same quality concrete $6.50-$7.50 per sq. ft.
The homeowners started by contacting the neighbors’ landscape contractor, Don DeVorss of Green Valley Nursery & Landscape (“Green Valley”). Green Valley set up a meeting with their landscape designer, Jill Hardesty of Beyond the Gate Landscape Design, to create a plan for their front and back yards that would solve their More >
