Keep your garden safe from thieves

Keeping your garden safe from thieves is a difficult task.

A thick prickly hedge around your property plus a good pair of gates, which can be securely closed are really good deterrents and environmentally friendly too. 

A mound of berberis would be virtually impossible to get through without protective clothing, or secateurs, or hedge trimmers.

As well as growing a hedge of prickly plants you can use climbing roses and evergreen pyracantha to grow up the house, garage or shed walls. Pyracantha not only acts as an effective deterrent to those trying to gain access to your home, but it also has lovely white flowers in spring and bunches of red, yellow or orange berries in the autumn. 

Climbing roses are dual purpose – they put thieves off and attract more welcome visitors and gardener’s friends such as bees and other useful insects. Dense plants provide invaluable protection to small mammals and are excellent nesting sites for garden birds.

Many burglar deterring plants such as holly, pyracantha, buckthorn and quickthorn all have berries and produce food for wildlife. On the wild side, brambles and blackberries make excellent burglar beating hedges too.