When it comes to landscape lighting, the front yard tends to hog the spotlight. It’s kind of braggy:
Look at my cool brickwork!
Check out this expensive Sylvester Date Palm with its diamond-cut trunk!
Notice my winding stone walkway!
But your backyard is where the real fun happens, right? It’s where you party on the patio, splash in the pool, unwind under the pergola with cherry cheesecake after a week that beat you up.
Don’t leave it in the dark.
Check out these backyard landscape lighting ideas:
1. Let Your Trees Shine
Tree lighting isn’t just for front yard trees. They already get to show off.
Bring that great tree lighting out back.
Uplighting even your hard-working ordinary trees suddenly makes them look special at night by casting light up at the trunk or canopy.
Are your backyard trees all different sizes? No problem. There’s tree lighting for everybody. 
Tall trees like palms, magnolia, and oaks all get the same type of uplighting, with MR-16 bulbs that shine light from the ground up. But these lights come in various widths and wattages to allow for flexibility so each tree can get just the right effect.
Shorter palms and shrubs might use a “wall washer” fixture that has a large mirror to help scatter the light all over to highlight their texture.
Backyard landscape lighting tip: Don’t get too excited and light every tree. That’s overkill. Plus, all that light will annoy your neighbors. (You still want their famous orange cranberry bread during the holidays, right?)
2. Light Up Your Entertaining
Take a good look at the spots where you love to hang out, whether it’s with family and friends, one special person, or just you and your pint of mint chocolate chip.
Think pergolas, patios, sitting walls, outdoor kitchens.
Backyard landscape lighting design highlights the architecture of these pretty spots, enhances their safety, creates cozy ambiance, and sets the mood for evening entertaining.
Festive string lights overhead create an instant party. (More on these beauties in a minute.) Path lights make the stroll safer. Uplighting makes everything prettier.
Don’t hide your best entertaining spots in the dark.
3. Backyard Landscape Lighting for Safety (Don’t Trip with Your Dip)
If your backyard is like most, there’s stuff laying around. Your kid’s skateboard. That big branch your dog dragged in from who knows where. The loose patio paver you keep meaning to fix, but life gets in the way. Your neighbor who fell asleep by your pool. 
Backyard landscape lighting will illuminate any risks until somebody (OK, you) gets around to tidying up.
That means lighting walkways, paths, steps, and stairs.
4. A Dark Pool is Kind of Creepy
Nobody wants to frolic in a dark pool. We’ve all seen too many scary movies.
Plus, lots of activity happens around a pool. So add light to any dark areas where people could trip, slip, or fall.
That means the pool deck, steps, walkways, and the path from your house to the pool. Subtle, recessed landscape lighting offers just enough light for safety without distracting from the evening fun.
Backyard landscape lighting tip: Add pool area lighting to the surrounding trees and plants, too, to create pretty scenery you can enjoy poolside after the sun goes down.
5. Fake Some Moonlight (We Won’t Tell)
If only you had a remote control for the moon.
Moonlighting is the next best thing, creating the soft glow of the moon with strategically placed backyard landscape lighting high in the branches of trees. 
Boom — a romantic moonlit glow. Plus, you get lovely dappled shadows that come from light filtering through leaves and branches.
You can’t always count on the real moon to illuminate your yard at night. So fake it. Just click the switch.
6. Don’t Forget Your Fire Pit
Wait a minute. A fire creates light. Why does it need more light?
Soft lighting around your flickering gathering spot adds to the cozy atmosphere.
Backyard landscape lighting design here adds safety, too. You don’t want anyone to trip in the dark and fall too close to the flames.
In-ground lights, or under cap lights if you have built-in seating, will help everybody see where they’re walking.
7. Light Your Pretty Plants
Backyard landscape lighting in Central Florida means lighting the cool plants we’re lucky to grow here. 
That spectacular 6-foot croton. The intriguing lobed leaves of your Xanadu philodendron. Your cute Roebelenii Date Palm.
You get the idea. The same plants you love during the day are just as enchanting after dark — with the right backyard landscape lighting design.
8. Backyard Landscape Lighting Ideas Just for Fun
If you don’t have festive string lights out back, you’re missing out on one of the best backyard landscape lighting ideas. Hang them over your pretty patio. String them around tree trunks or in branches. Heck, string them around your teen-agers if they’re sitting in one spot for too long.
Add festive string lights to your pool area and you’ve got an instant party atmosphere — or the setting for a romantic poolside evening for two.
Any way you use these beauties, you can’t lose.
9. Click! Control it All with Your Phone
Once you’re relaxing in your backyard, munching grilled chicken nachos with mango salsa and basking in the glow of all your great new backyard landscape lighting ideas, you want the evening to be worry free.
Today’s controllers make landscape lighting easier than ever — you can control everything from your smartphone.
Many systems have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth control options, making it easy to turn your lights on and off from different devices or locations.
Don’t forget dimmers. Put your pool area lighting or your pergola lights on dimmers you can control.
Then with a simple click, you can make the landscape lighting brighter or dimmer to suit the atmosphere and your safety needs.
Consider a landscape lighting system with separate zones. That lets you put your back yard on its own timer, to stay on longer than the rest of your landscape lighting, if your festivities — or your romantic evening — stretches late into the night.
10. Work with a Pro
All these backyard landscape lighting ideas are great, but landscape lighting is tricky.
You don’t just want basic installation. You want creative artistic lighting design.
A Central Florida landscape lighting designer will know exactly how to bring the best backyard landscape lighting ideas to your yard.
They’ll have cool ideas about lighting your impressive palms and that pretty pergola that might not have occurred to you.
A designer also knows how to avoid common landscape lighting mistakes. You don’t want your lighting to shine off into the sky or into your neighbor’s bedroom window.
Wattage matters. Too much wattage will just wash out your landscaping, but too little is a waste of money. Designers know this stuff.Hire a landscape lighting company with a designer on staff who can really bring the wow. Not all Central Florida landscape lighting companies have one.
Need Backyard Landscape Lighting in Central Florida? Trust Ground Source
Ready to light up your backyard? You’ll love it.
Maybe all this pondering is giving you even bigger ideas. Hmmmm….
Maybe you could use a few more impressive trees and plants for that lighting to highlight. Did reading about a pergola strung with festive white lights make you suddenly really want a pergola?
Understandable.
Not all Central Florida landscape lighting companies are full-service landscaping experts. We can help you with the total package, from planning the design to installation to skillfully lighting it all so it wows after dark.
We make it easy. Start to finish. No hassles. Wait for the compliments.
We’re landscape lighting experts, but our skills don’t stop there. We’re with you every step of the way as you plan your perfect outdoor space.
Sod, irrigation, landscape design: Let us transform your landscape from an embarrassing eyesore to a place you spend every spare minute.
Are you ready to enjoy the vibrant, impressive landscape you've always wanted? Request a quote today! We’ll help you review your options and then transform your property.
