How To Reduce The Risk Of Garden Plants Being Stolen
As expert locksmiths, our team at Doncaster Lock & Key receive a huge number of requests for information about home security. People ask us all sorts of questions about securing not only their homes, but also their outdoor areas. For example, plant theft has been an increasingly common complaint in our local area.
How can you reduce the risk of equipment and plants being stolen from your garden? Here is some professional insight from our team of security specialists Doncaster Lock & Key!
Wait, People Are Stealing Garden Plants!?
Criminals will steal anything they can lift if given the opportunity. If you are someone who loves your garden plants, they might just be attractive or rare enough to catch the eye of a green-fingered thief. If you want to avoid that issue, there are steps you can take.
The most popular plants that are stolen are hard to find cheaply, such as bonsai and agave plants. However, even cheaper plants can be targets: anything that looks nice could be stolen by a criminal to try to sell or use in their own garden.
How To Keep Your Garden Plants Safe From Theft
Here are some ways that you can make sure your plants don’t become the next target for criminals in the local area:
Strengthen Perimeter Security
Our tip as locksmiths is quite simple: make your garden gate and fence more secure. Add an extra lock mechanism that is not easily disabled without a key or access. Given that over one in five break-ins start with the back door, having a stronger garden gate also reduces the risk of a successful break-in.
If you see any part of your garden fence or gate as vulnerable, bolster it with extra security. Add sensors, extra fencing, and new garden gate locks to make entry as difficult as possible for those who do not have access credentials, such as a key.
Install Heavy Plant Pots
If you use lightweight plant pots, you are making it easy for someone to come in, lift the pot, and vanish with your beloved décor. Use heavy-duty, powerful plant pots. With the added weight of the plants themselves, you should find that this makes your plant pots almost impossible to lift.
Secure Plant Pots To The Ground
Get a chain-and-bolt system and attach it to your plant pots that you do not intend to move anytime soon. Anyone who wants to try to lift that pot would need to remove the chain, which is a challenge to do. Most criminals would give up and move on; remember, criminals want easy wins!
Do The Same With Ornaments
We also recommend that you set out to keep your garden ornaments equally secure. Chain them down into place if you can, or use something to help weigh them down further so that criminals are unlikely to be able to lift them.
If you still worry, engrave your postcode on the bottom of the ornament. This means that if the thief tries to fence your ornaments, buyers will be aware that they are stolen and thus would be less likely to pay for them.
Proactively Harvest Your Crops
As your fruit and veg plants come to harvest time, it’s easy to put it off for a few short days. However, eagle-eyed criminals might just so happen to walk past and see your juicy fruits and bulky vegetables ready to be picked. If you don’t harvest them, someone else might!
So, try to be proactive about harvesting your fruit and veg as soon as they’re ready.
Keep Your Prized Possessions Well Hidden
We know that this might seem counterproductive, but it’s worth considering. Your most prized flowers and flora should be hidden away from easy view. Keep them in parts of the garden that are not visible through your fence, for example.
In fact, we would build on this and say that the most immediately visible plants and flowers should be your most boring ones. Any criminals combing the gardens for something to steal will be put off by the fact that your garden seems to have only basic shrubs and the like. Keep the A-listers towards the safest, least visible part of your garden.
You’ll still be able to enjoy them and show them off to visitors, but criminals are less likely to see them.
Professional Tips For Garden Security
If you worry that your garden could be a target for a break-in attempt, you need to bolster security. As professionals in the locksmithing and home security trade, our advice to you would be to:
- Keep your fences double-slatted and high on the perimeter, but low and single-slatted on the inside. This means criminals struggle to get into the garden, but also to find a hiding place
- Add extra security along the top of your fence, such as anti-intruder spikes. Add some spiky or thorny plants on the fencing, too; these tend to look great and act as a deterrent
- Invest in some ‘noisy’ paths, such as gravel, to help make sure intruders make as much noise as possible when they are moving around
- Store all expensive machinery and equipment in a shed, and add a high-security padlock to the shed so they are hard to break into
- Invest in motion sensors and CCTV systems that cover the property perimeter, including your garden, to help scare off criminals from even attempting entry
Keep these ideas in mind, and you should find it much easier to protect your garden plants and your overall property perimeter from unwanted intruders, forced entries, and burglaries!
