Blooming Good Advice . . .
Our gardens are one of our greatest passions. We spend billions of pounds every year on bringing them into bloom. With garden crime on the increase, we look at how to improve your security
– and also how surprisingly dangerous gardens can be!
- Interesting facts about gardens
- Tips for making your garden more secure
- Reduce the risk of accidents in the garden
- Contents in the open cover
Interesting facts about gardens
Some 83% of the UK population has a garden and around £5 billion is spent every year on flowers, plants, gardening tools & equipment and other outdoor items.
Approximately 300,000 people visit A&E wards in the UK every year following an accident in their garden.
Garden crime is a growing problem with around 1 in 8 owners suffering theft from their gardens – a quarter of these thefts are from garden sheds. Top of the list for theft are bicycles, followed by plants, lawnmowers, tools and garden furniture.
Tips for making your garden more secure
Most garden thefts are opportunistic, but burglars will target sheds and garages and everything from expensive potted plants to outdoor gas heaters and barbeques. And they don’t stop there – gnomes, gates, paving slabs, tiles, gloves and even fish from ponds are some of the more unusual items burgled. It’s easy to leave items out in the garden when it’s a natural extension of your home, but there are various measures you can take to make your garden more secure and less attractive to thieves:
- Ensure your back gate is properly secured and kept locked
- Add trellis to fences to make them more difficult to climb
- Make back boundaries more secure by introducing prickly hedges such as hawthorn
- Don’t give thieves anywhere to hide at the front of your house. The police recommend hedges at the front of your house are a maximum height of 90cm
- Lock up tools in a secure shed or garage
- Use loose gravel on your paths – it’s noisy when walked on
- Include your garage or shed on your house alarm
- Install security lights for your garden
- Secure ladders or large tools with chains to walls
- Fit grilles to garage or shed windows and use blinds or curtains to hide
- Fix hanging baskets out of reach or secure the rim to the bracket
- Cement garden tubs in place or bolt them down through their drainage
- Remove labels from valuable plants
- Put your postcode on anything valuable – try an ultraviolet pen. You are
- Customise your tools with a dab of paint – it makes them harder to sell
Check your insurance policy to ensure it covers possessions left outside the family home.
Reduce the risk of accidents in the garden
Gardens can be surprisingly dangerous. Some 300,000 people visit Accident & Emergency wards in the UK every year following an accident in their garden!
Top tips for making your garden a safer environment:
- Make sure your garden doesn’t have trip hazards such as uneven surfaces or loose paving slabs and hosepipes left lying around
- Don’t leave tools out. Keep them locked away from children. Do the same with chemicals such as weed-killers and insecticides – even those labeled ‘Organic’ or ‘Bio’ can be dangerous
- If you’re using machinery, such as a strimmer or hedge trimmer, wear safety equipment – gloves, goggles, steel toe-capped boots – and tuck in any loose parts of your clothing
- To help prevent electric shock when using garden machinery use a Residual Current Device – they cut out the flow of electricity if the cable is cut through. And don’t use electrical equipment in wet weather
- Never leave your barbecue unattended. Always ensure the flames are fully extinguished before going to bed
- Take the time to learn which plants in your garden are poisonous and keep children and pets away from them
Need to do some gutter clearing or replacement or clear something off the roof of your garage or shed? If you’re using a ladder:
- Always ensure the ladder's feet are on solid, even ground – the feet should be rubber to prevent slipping
- Always keep one hand firmly on the ladder when working
- Don't overstretch yourself or work sideways – do it face on
- Don’t leave tools on the platform at the top or prunings on the rungs
Remember, if you’re unsure whether a job is safe you can always call in professionals.
And if you have a pond, be aware of how dangerous they can be for small children. Cover small ponds with wooden trellis or wire mesh and put a fence or grow plants around large ponds to stop children getting near the edge.
Contents in the open cover
Your garden is part of your home so it makes sense to give it the same great value protection.
Our contents cover for all of our home products is so thorough it continues even when your customers walk out the back door.
We will pay up to £750 for loss or damage to contents if your customers leave them in the open within the grounds of their home and up to 15% of the sum insured for loss or damage to contents caused by theft or attempted theft from outbuildings forming part of your customers home.
With effect from 1st August, we will also pay up to £1000 for loss or damage trees, shrubs, hedges, bushes, lawns and plants within the grounds of your customers’ home.