Tree & Landscape Lighting · Milton

Tree and Landscape Lighting in Milton

In Old Milton the trees are often the best part of the display. On the newer streets they are small, and the job is making a young boulevard tree and a few shrubs look intentional rather than lost.

Milton has two kinds of front yard. The older streets around Main Street, Martin Street and the Mill Pond have maples, spruce and cedar hedges planted decades ago, big enough to carry a display on their own. The streets built in the last twenty-five years have a young boulevard tree, a few foundation shrubs and a narrow strip of lawn beside the driveway. Both can look good. They need different plans.

Trees

• Trunk wraps. Tight, evenly spaced spirals up the trunk and into the main limbs. On a mature Old Milton maple this is the most striking thing in the yard, and it uses less light than people expect.
• Canopy lighting. Strands run out along the branches of smaller ornamental trees and conifers. Spruce and cedar are lit from the outside in, so the shape reads at night.
• Young boulevard trees. A light trunk wrap and a few strands in the crown, fastened so nothing girdles a growing tree. Boulevard trees belong to the Town, so the touch is light and nothing is nailed or screwed to them.

Shrubs, beds and walkways

• Shrubs and cedars. Net lights or wrapped strands sized to the plant, which suits the foundation plantings along newer house fronts.
• Walkways. Low stake lights along the path, set back from where the shovel and snowblower go and with every connection lifted off the ground.
• Wreaths and garland. On front doors, porch railings, columns and lamp posts, pre-lit where possible so the cords disappear.

Power lines and safety

Older Milton streets often have overhead service drops running from the pole to the house across the front yard, sometimes through the canopy of the very tree you want lit. The Electrical Safety Authority says to check for overhead lines and stay at least three metres away when using a ladder or decorating outdoor trees. A tree with a line through it is lit below that clearance or not at all, and you will be told which before the quote is final. Outdoor connections run on GFCI protection, and ground-level connections are raised on stakes or tucked into the tree so they do not sit in snowmelt or a puddle.

Snow and wind

The Georgetown climate normals show December snowfall near 30 cm and January near 38 cm, and the open lots on Milton's west side catch wind off the farmland and the escarpment. Strands on trees and shrubs are fastened so a load of wet snow or a gusty night does not pull them loose, and walkway lights are set where a snowbank will not bury them.

Frequently asked questions

Serving Milton and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.