Gardening has never been more popular. As the recession bites hard more and more people either have more time on their hands due to the economic down turn or they have decided to grow their own produce.
This has resulted in a massive surge in garden equipment and garden related sales. Have you noticed just HOW busy the garden centres are these days! This is great news for the environment and a great way of saving a bit of money. One positive aspect of the recession is that garden tools are now cheaper than they have ever been, so there really is no excuse to getting your hands dirty.
Unfortunately this positive green action has given rise to a sharp increase in garden related theft.
The most common targets are small hand held tools such as spades and forks. These can be easily concealed under a coat or jacket and sold for only a fraction of what they cost you. You may also be at risk from house theft as garden tools are often used to gain entry to property. See our blog on house burglary.
I have collected some information from online gardening websites and pulled together some hints and tips on securing your garden against theft.
Safe Tool Storage
Insurance
The first thing you should be doing is ensuring that your home contents insurance covers all of the equipment which is kept outside of the house and that it is sufficient to cover the total value of these garden items. If you have items of specific value – for example a ride on mower, you may wish to consider a dedicated garden insurance policy. Garden insurance is often over looked by home owners
Only ten or so insurers in the UK offer garden cover as standard…
Sheds and Garages
At one time, you would be able to keep all of your garden valuables in a small shed but such are the array of tools and other gardening gadgets on offer these days that sheds have got bigger and, for those of us with garages, the space is now being utilised more for the rest of our garden equipment which will no longer fit in our shed so you need to put yourself in the mindset of a potential burglar and determine how easy you’d think it would be to break into them.
A good quality metal shed like seem like a quite a large investment (several hundred pounds) but think of how much it will cost in time and effort to replace the contents of a shed that has been broken into. This is a list of the average shed contents:
Lawn mower – £150
Garden furniture – £499
Tools (rakes spades etc. £200
Paint – £35
Childrens bikes – £80
Ladders – £60
Misc – £100
Over £1000 in total.
So why buy a £99 shed to store 10 times the value inside?
Metal garden sheds are ideal for storing tools
Many people over look the content value of their shed. Lets not forget the added concern with shed theft. Thieves will often break into your house using your own garden tools.
Pete Spicer, Crime Prevention Officer, said: “The Police often stop and search known burglars to see if they are “going equipped” to do a burglary. So rather than take anything with them they will use whatever they can find to force entry to a house – having an unsecured shed could mean the difference between being broken into or not.”
Fences, Gates, Bushes and Security Lighting Systems
All of these are good all additional barriers for a burglar to negotiate before they can even get near to your shed or garage so make sure you have these things in place to deter thieves in the first place.
Marking Your Equipment
Thieves prefer items which they can get rid of quickly and because gardening and hobbies related to the garden have become increasingly popular, they are attracted to gardening tools, in particular, because they’re very easy to sell on. Therefore, mark each piece of equipment with both an invisible pen containing your postcode (to track your stolen items) and also in a visible way to deter the theft in the 1st place/. With these simple measures in place a thief is more likely to move on to another target where security might not be so much of an issue.
When You’ve Run Out Of Storage Space
If you find you’ve used up all of the available storage space in your shed and garage, it’s a good idea to fix items to an immovable object or, if it’s some type of equipment which can be operated without moving it, maybe you could set the base in concrete. Ground anchors are a very cheap method of doing this. Normally used for securing bike and motorcycles these can be a highly effective method of protecting your equipment. The best ground anchors to look for carry a sold secure badge. For more information about Sold secure products.
Tell Your Neighbours
It’s important that you don’t get over-obsessed about preventing your garden gear being stolen. By following the advice above and taking other advice from other articles contained in this section, it should be more than enough to put off a potential thief who would much sooner prefer to find an easier target to hit. However, if you’re going away on holiday or on business and leaving your property empty, it’s a good idea to let your closest neighbour know when you’re going and when you’ll be back so that they can keep an eye on things for you.
Top ten tips for securing your garden and garden equipment.
1. Write your postcode on valuable garden items such as barbecues with ultra-violet pen
2. Check your sheds and gates for winter deterioration, and repair if necessary
3. Replace any rusting padlocks or locks with stronger alternatives
4. Take photographs of valuable items to keep in case of theft
5. Always go for a metal shed as opposed to a wooden one. Metal is stronger and much harder to break into. A good quality metal shed will be galvansied, lasting decades rather than months.
6. Protect statues with a simple alarm that will go off if they are moved
7. Secure valuable trees with tree anchors
8. Use prickly plants such as roses or pyracantha to deter thieves
9. Install good garden security lighting
10. Lock away valuable items after you have used them.
Asgard Secure Storage. UK leaders in Metal Sheds
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