Trees and Planting
Uplighting a tree is the single highest-value thing you can do to a garden after dark. One good tree lit properly does more than twenty path lights.
How to get it right: two or three fittings around the trunk rather than one, set back from the base so the beam follows the trunk up into the canopy instead of scorching the bark with a hot spot. A narrow beam for a tall, columnar tree; a standard beam for a spreading one. Spike-mounted for anything you may want to move as the tree grows; in-ground where the mower goes.
Aim it in leaf, not in winter. A fitting aimed perfectly at bare branches in January lights very little in July. Set the positions in winter, do the final aim in May.
