How to Secure Your Garden and Lawn

Perhaps you've seen someone sneak a cutting off your prized cactus. Or, perhaps you've lost something bigger to theft, like a bicycle or air conditioning unit. Either way, you've invested time and money into your home, and that includes your outdoor living spaces. Naturally, you want to know how to secure your garden.

Following some simple tips can keep your garden and lawn secure. Take steps to safeguard your property with locks, a shed, proper lighting and a home security system.

1. Hide or Lock up Expensive Items

To protect your garden from burglars, first you may want to identify the property that's at highest risk of getting stolen. This may include power tools, lawn equipment, grills and lawn furniture.

Thieves may often scope out a home before deciding to burglarize it, so you may want to keep your valuable items out of view when not in use. If you have a deck, covered patio or enclosed porch, strategic placement of this property can keep them hidden. 

The use of tarps, chains and locks can add more security. These can be effective for grills, lawn mowers and other large items. Investing in a shed can provide a convenient alternative option for securing garden and lawn equipment. 

A shed is especially helpful when you're away from home for long periods of time. Plus, a lock and outdoor sensor can help you prevent and address break-in attempts.

Outdoor entertainment system components may need more aggressive security measures. At a minimum, you may want to keep any outdoor electronics locked up and out of sight to deter theft. You can consider preventative measures such as cable or combination locks as well as an outdoor camera, with its field of view aimed at your most valuable appliances.

2. Maintain Your Yard

Aside from the nice look of a well-tended garden, you may expect security perks as well. An unruly lawn with lots of bushes and trees can be very attractive to burglars. Thieves can hide in overgrown bushes or vines, so you may want to keep all your foliage trimmed to minimize this danger. 

Poor outdoor maintenance may lead thieves to believe the home is unoccupied. Consider keeping your lawn mowed and your outdoor spaces well-maintained. Don't give burglars any reason to believe they can rob your home undetected.

A safe garden shouldn't need much water either. Consider planting thorny vegetation like cacti, acacia and blackberry shrubs. You can place them under windows to discourage thieves from entering your home through these access points.

3. Install a Fence

Restricting entry to your yard by installing a sturdy fence is another smart method of securing your garden. Consider choosing one tall enough to deter climbing and keep the gate locked.

Chicken wire or mesh fencing are additions that can help prevent fence scaling, but most homeowners may prefer more durable materials. You can add a trellis fence topper as an extra hindrance to would-be thieves.

If your fence has a gate, a durable outdoor window sensor can alert you to when it's opened unexpectedly.

4. Buy Landscape Lighting

A strategically lit garden or lawn is both attractive and smart. Criminals prefer to work under cover of darkness, so they tend to avoid homes with good outdoor lighting.

You can manage most smart lighting with if-this-then-that rules such as turning on if motion triggers your outdoor camera---along with recorded video clips. This way you can spotlight intruders, even if you may not want to bother neighbors with constant glaring lights.

You can add up-lighting on your house and down-lighting in trees for ideal illumination. You might also add solar pathway lights for subtle, eco-friendly lighting at night.

5. Invest in a Home Security System

Professional home security can be a wise investment for securing your home inside and out. Motion sensor alerts, video cameras and other automated tech tools can help keep you, your family and your possessions safe.

Outdoor cameras with motion detection can work for you when most needed. Remote management can help you safeguard and monitor your home from anywhere, and round-the-clock monitoring leaves fewer gaps in your home's security.

Your security company's yard sign is a bonus deterrent, as well. Burglars prefer simple jobs with no surprises, and they may often skip a house with a security sign in favor of an easier mark.

Overall, tending to your garden isn't just a relaxing hobby or way to beautify your dwelling. It can serve as an eye-catching protective barrier around your home, especially when combined with home security. It can be a simple way to make your home look safer to neighbors and risky to would-be burglars, at the same time.