How Choosing Prickly Shrubs Can Help to Protect Your Property

Securing your house needn’t just be about burglar alarms, heavy duty locks and automatic lighting. Garden design can also play an important part in deterring intruders. Defensive planting concerns the basic layout of your garden and using plants to create a barrier.

The Importance of a Good Garden Hedge

A hedge planted around the perimeter of your garden is a good first step. Be careful to limit the height of the hedge to no more than three feet so your garden can be seen from the road. You don’t want to give anyone up to no good a place to hide and a high garden hedge provides just that. If you have an existing hedge, check it for weak spots and fill any gaps with a prickly plant.

Good prickly plants to use are the Hawthorn as it is dense and spiky, Holly with its spiny leaves and Common Gorse, which is a very prickly plant. The Hawthorn has the advantage of being attractive due to its fragrant white flowers in May and red haws in autumn. All these large shrubs are good for boundaries.

Prickly Garden Plants and Shrubs

Prickly garden shrubs also work well under windows as a preventative measure. The spikes and thorns on the plants you choose will deter opportunistic thieves looking for an easy entry. Negotiating these shrubs is not only painful, they also risk leaving behind a scrap of clothing or a drop of blood to help the police with their investigations. Invest in some thorny climbing plants for the bottom of drainpipes, indeed anywhere where access could be gained to the house.

For your individual shrub plants try Rosa Fruhlings, which is a pretty but very prickly rose. It grows up to 2-3 metres high making it perfect to go under ground floor windows. Winter Sun has spiny foliage and flowers in the winter to give your garden colour in the dark months.

Pyracantha is a climbing evergreen with long thorns. These thorns don’t break off as they are part of the stem and would discourage even the most determined thief. Pink Lady is a fast growing evergreen, which can be trained to climb walls.

Be Careful Around Children and Animals

If you have young children or animals, do make sure that the plants you are choosing are non-poisonous and that your children don’t play too near them. Take advice from your local garden centre about the most suitable plants for you.

Don’t Forget Garden Accessories

The gravel path and the water feature should not be forgotten. Gravel paths or driveways,as well as being decorative are effective as no thief likes to give away his presence on a noisy path. You could use any left over gravel under the windows as a crunchy surprise. A strategically placed fountain or pond can surprise anyone clambering over your carefully planted garden hedge.

Defensive Planting Can Be Attractive and Effective

These tips show how defensive planting can turn your garden into an unpleasant experience for intruders. There is no need for unsightly barbed wire or broken glass. The prickly plants you choose can be just as attractive as their non prickly alternatives and have the added bonus of attracting wildlife. The birds will appreciate it if you choose shrubs with berries. Your prickly garden shrubs will certainly make burglars think twice before choosing to enter your property.