Law and border
It’s easy to overlook the value of all that stuff in your garden outbuilding. Luckily, keeping it secure is simple… and needn’t cost you a shed load
GOING away over the summer when the garden’s at the height of its powers is always a bit of a wrench. But it’s not just the concern about plants surviving without you that makes it a worry.
There is also the fear of opportunistic thieves targeting your shed, garage or outbuildings if your home is obviously unoccupied.
I say this because only the other week, a couple of my garden sheds were broken into. It drives you mad when it happens.
If you add up the cost of the things we tend to store in sheds and garages – hand tools, lawn mowers and leisure goods such as golf clubs or bikes – it can be a considerable sum of money.
Making sure gates and doors are locked, fences are secure and ladders are chained up will go some way to protecting your home and garden.
Planting spiky bushes such as pyracantha, Berberis or holly along boundaries or by low roofs is good to deter intruders too, but there are a few extra steps you can take to keep summer houses, outbuildings, sheds and garages secure.
LIGHTING
SECURITY lighting that reacts to movement is a good way to deter burglars – and these days you don’t have to rewire the whole house to fit it.
I went out and bought some sensor activated, solar-powered lights with no wires at all – there are just two screws on the sides to fit them in place and away you go.
The ones I’ve bought have two settings, so you can decide whether to have a dim light on for an extended time or a very bright light for about 15 seconds.
I opted for the latter, as it’s the switching on and off of lights as would-be burglars move in the garden that most puts them off. I’ve positioned a security light above each of my sheds and garages now in the hope of deterring future robbers – and alerting me should they come marauding in the future.
EXTERNAL LOCKS
A DECENT shed lock is important to protect your gardening equipment, but it’s not just the lock itself that matters – it’s the bracket too.
You can buy brackets that bolt through into your shed. These are better because they prevent thieves from using a spade or a crowbar to wrench the bracket itself away.
Of course, once you have a decent bracket you’ll also want to invest in a solid lock to go with it.
You can buy locks from B&Q that are resistant to being attacked with bolt cutters – stopping thieves being able to easily cut the lock off.
To be extra safe, I’ve installed two locks on each of my sheds – one at waist height and the other at chin height – as, visually, extra locks will encourage burglars to go elsewhere.
LOCK UP INSIDE TOO
EVEN with good locks on the outside, another great tip is to lock the larger items inside your shed to one another using bike locks. I lock my push bike to my lawn mower – and then my lawn mower to my leaf shredder.
Having them all connected makes them much more difficult to steal, even once thieves have made it past your lights and external shed locks.
It’s worth the extra hassle it creates of having to unlock equipment each time you want to use it.
Let’s face it, that slight inconvenience is a small price to pay for the added peace of mind of knowing you have one more security measure in place.
SHED ALARMS
THESE are well worth checking out, as you can buy battery-operated shed alarms that are very simple to install.
I bought some which go inside the shed and will sound when someone opens the door.