NOW THAT IT is the beginning of November and darkness has truly descended upon us, what can we do to beat back the dark?
This week, I want to emphasize the importance and vitality of holiday light displays. I actually call them light sculptures, which more appropriately describes their essence and value.
As a devoted horticulturist, I see holiday lights as an intrinsic part of a year-round ornamental program.
First, lights give you the ability to do extremely creative work in a genre not normally available in the traditional landscape setting. And that is the essence of what I want to express.
The reason the world’s best light displays are at Botanical Gardens is because they incorporate everything that is fine landscaping.
A creative design will use the building, the setting, viewpoints and the available hardscape as a foundation (canvas) for the creation. The colors, flow, depth and height of light sculptures will all combine to create one setting. This is what makes gardening so fun — the challenge of using one’s own concepts in various ways to bring out one’s vision for an area. But again, with lights, you can achieve things not done or easily achieved with plants.
And that leads to the challenge I have for you: Regardless of whether it is your home, church, business or friend’s residence, be creative. Precisely at the darkest time of the year, let’s illuminate the North Olympic Peninsula with our creative passion.
Each of us possess a distinct personality, along with your own individual property. (I’m counting rentals, too.) I want you to use your imagination and light it up.
Who cares that the garden is frozen and the bulbs are in? This is no time to join every place else in a waiting game for spring’s arrival. Get your artist’s hat on and figure out how to deck your place out in an expression of yourself.
Maybe it’s just one tree, each branch in a separate color with the bird bath trimmed in lights, blue water and all.
Maybe it is a windmill trimmed out, just a spectacular arrangement of colors across the yard.
Just try to find the inner light artist in you.
Here are a couple of tricks that can help:
• Buy lights by the thousands. This is much easier. If you’re only putting three or four strands on a tree, it takes a lot of time to get the spacing just so. With 10 or 12 strands, you can just whip them up there because the spacing is irrelevant and, with so many lights, you’ll get everything covered.
• Staplers and zip ties are wonderful. Easy up, easy down and held right in place, these items hold your designs together. Determine your method of hanging the display so it is fun and easy when the actual stringing occurs.
• Prepare the lights first. This is so crucial to enjoying the process and having fun. In the dry warmth of your house, remove the lights from the box, unwrap them, de-knot them and remove the spare bulb package. Remove the white tags. Replace the strands in easy-to-grab containers, so when you are creating your masterpiece, the strands flow to you smoothly and easily.
• Get big, beefy, heavy-duty extension cords (preferably green). I do not want this to be performance art that ends up in a huge burning flame, symbolizing the yule log. The smaller gauge number on the cord, the better — 12- , 14- , 16-gauges are acceptable. And get those with multiple sockets on the end.
• Use as many different breakers as possible. Electricity is always the limiting factor. It is not the number of sockets that matters, it is the number of different circuits. Have the extension cords come out of windows in different rooms — spread the power around.
• Have fun! This is an extension of gardening, and it is artistic — be in that frame of mind.
My ultimate goal is really quite simple: When people are at Butchart Gardens’ 1-million-plus light display in Victoria, I want them to look south, see a glow from Port Angeles and say, “This is really nice, but let’s not forget to see what is going on over there!”
As for all of us here on the Peninsula, we will just lay back and relish living in the brightest spot in the state.
Meanwhile … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
