The work splits into a day half and a night half. By day you measure cable routes, mount a transformer beside an outdoor outlet, push fixture stakes into the beds and cut a narrow trench for the cable. An install day runs four to eight hours, much of it on your knees with a spade. At dusk the other half begins: you switch the system on, stand at the street and at the kitchen window, and nudge each fixture until the glare is gone and the light lands where you meant it to. Most people light one area per weekend and add to the same transformer over a season.

Five effects and one rule

Uplighting

A spotlight at the base of a tree or column, aimed up. Two fixtures from different sides give the trunk shape. One makes it look flat.

Path lighting

Short fixtures that throw light down and outward. Space them 8 to 10 feet apart on alternating sides and let the pools barely overlap.

Grazing

A fixture within a foot of a textured wall, aimed along its face, so every stone casts a small shadow.

Washing

The same fixture pulled 2 or 3 feet back with a wide beam, for an even glow across a fence or hedge.

Silhouetting

A light hidden behind a plant and pointed at the wall behind it, so the plant shows as a dark outline.

Shielding

Not an effect but the rule under all of them. You should see the lit object, never the bare bulb. Aim away from windows, the street and the sky.

Lighting that respects the night

DarkSky International Free guidance on shielded, warm, low-glare lighting that keeps the night sky and the neighbors happy

Choosing a transformer, fixtures and cable

Transformer size

Add up the watts of every fixture you plan to run, multiply by 1.25, and buy the next size up. Ten 5-watt LED fixtures need about 63 watts, so a 100 to 150-watt unit leaves room to expand.

Transformer features

Look for a built-in timer or photocell so the lights run themselves, an outdoor rating, and a safety listing mark from a recognized test lab.

Fixture material

Cast aluminum or brass bodies outlast plastic, which turns brittle in the sun. Check for a water-resistance rating of IP65 or higher.

Color and brightness

Warm white, 2700K to 3000K, flatters plants and stone. For a path light 100 to 200 lumens is plenty. A spotlight on a mid-size tree wants 300 to 500.

Voltage

Buy only fixtures marked for 12-volt systems. Each lists an operating range on the box, and every fixture on the run has to stay inside it. Transformers put out either AC or DC, so check that the fixture accepts the kind yours supplies. Most LED fixtures take both.

Cable gauge

14/2 direct-burial cable suits systems up to about 200 watts. Step up to 12/2 for runs past 100 feet, because thicker wire loses less voltage.

Setup each season

Reset the timer when the clocks change, wipe the lenses, straighten fixtures the frost or the mower has tipped, and trim plants that have grown over a beam.

A hooded metal path light on a thin stake between boulders and low ground cover — A hooded path light on a stake

Electrical safety and the rules

Stay at 12 volts

A beginner system is a plug-in transformer feeding 12-volt fixtures, or self-contained solar lights. Line-voltage (120 V) fixtures, new outlets, new circuits and anything hardwired into the house are jobs for a licensed electrician, usually with a permit.

GFCI outlet

Plug the transformer only into a GFCI-protected outdoor outlet with a weatherproof in-use cover. If the outlet fails a tester, or there is no outdoor outlet, have an electrician install one before you buy anything else.

No extension cords

An extension cord is not a permanent feed for a transformer. Mount the transformer within reach of the outlet, at least 12 inches above the ground.

Unplug first

Pull the transformer's plug before you make or change any connection. A short on the 12-volt side will not shock you, but it can overheat the cable.

Call 811

Contact 811 a few business days before you dig, even for a shallow cable trench. The utilities mark their buried lines for free, and digging without the marks can be both dangerous and illegal.

Water

Keep the transformer and standard fixtures at least 10 feet from a pool, spa or fountain. Lighting near water has its own code rules and needs an electrician.

Local rules

Some towns and homeowner associations limit brightness, color or light crossing the property line. Check before you light the front yard.

Before any digging

Call 811 Free marking of buried gas, power and water lines before you dig, by phone or online

Your first install, start to finish

What you can light in your first month

A front walk

Three or four path lights staggered on alternate sides, so the path reads as pools of light instead of a runway.

One uplit tree

Two spotlights at the base of the best tree in the yard, aimed up through the branches from different sides.

A grazed wall

A spotlight set a foot from a stone or brick wall and aimed straight up, which makes the texture stand out.

A lit set of steps

One path light at the top and one at the bottom, placed so no tread sits in its own shadow.

A palm tree lit from below at night beside a dark garden path — A palm lit from below

Watch a full install first

Too many lights

The first instinct is to light everything evenly. A yard looks better with four or five lit features and real darkness between them.

The runway

Path lights in a straight, evenly spaced row on both sides look like an airstrip. Stagger them and use fewer.

Burying too soon

Every layout changes after the first night. Leave the cable on the surface until you have lived with it.

Dim lights at the far end

Voltage falls along the cable. If the last fixture is dim, shorten the run, split it into two runs from the transformer, or use thicker cable.

Connections that fail in a year

The clip-on connectors packed with many fixtures let water in and corrode. Sealed, grease-filled connectors cost a little more and are the fix for most flickering lights.

Judging in daylight

You cannot aim a light at noon. Expect two or three evenings of small adjustments before it looks right.

Cable in the wrong place

A cable run across a lawn edge gets cut by the edger. Route it through beds and along hard borders where no blade goes.

Why the kit looks the way it does

The list buys a transformer, fixtures, cable and connectors separately instead of as one boxed kit. Boxed kits are cheaper, but they tend to pair an undersized transformer with plastic fixtures and thin cable, and you replace all three within a couple of years. The transformer is the one part to overbuy, since every later fixture hangs off it. Fixtures come in multi-packs, so one pack of spotlights and one of path lights is enough for a first area. The list assumes you already own a flashlight, a tape measure and a spade. Solar lights sit at the bottom because they need no wiring at all, but they are dimmer and fade on short winter days, so treat them as a way to reach a spot the cable cannot.

A round in-ground light set flush in a lawn beside a bark-mulched bed at dusk — An in-ground light in a lawn

Wire the run

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the kit panel. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the card you already chose takes that line out. The transformer, fixtures, cable, connectors and the three tools start in the kit. The solar path lights start out of it until you have a spot the cable cannot reach.

Low-voltage landscape lighting transformer

Essential · Core equipment

It steps household power down to 12 volts, which is what makes the rest of the system safe to wire yourself. Every fixture you add draws from it.

budget

DEWENWILS 120W Low Voltage Landscape Transformer

4.6(2,622)

$59.99

Outdoor Lighting

What you actually do

Five effects and one rule

Choosing a transformer, fixtures and cable

Electrical safety and the rules

Your first install, start to finish

What trips beginners up

Why the kit looks the way it does

Wire the run

Low-voltage landscape lighting transformer

Low-voltage LED landscape spotlights

Low-voltage LED path lights

Low-voltage landscape cable

Waterproof low-voltage wire connectors

Wire stripper and cutter

Digital multimeter

GFCI outlet tester

Solar path lights