6 Summer Landscaping Tips That Can Improve Your Home Security

Bur­glar­ies and home inva­sions tend to spike dur­ing the sum­mer months, with break-ins occur­ring about every 90 sec­onds in Cana­da, accord­ing to fig­ures from SGI Cana­da. How­ev­er, you can do sev­er­al sim­ple things to reduce your risk of becom­ing a tar­get. Here are some land­scap­ing Tips That Can Improve Your Home Secu­ri­ty

Believe it or not, the over­all appear­ance and design of your land­scap­ing can be a sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor in whether a bur­glar decides to tar­get your home or not.

Here are some sim­ple but effec­tive strate­gies to enhance your home secu­ri­ty dur­ing the sum­mer months.

1. Keep the grass mowed.

If your home has a front lawn, make sure it’s main­tained all sum­mer long. For bur­glars, an unkempt yard is a good sign that the house is vacant. So by sim­ply mow­ing the grass reg­u­lar­ly, you help deter the bad guys (while enhanc­ing your home’s curb appeal). This tip is essen­tial when you’re on vaca­tion for an extend­ed time. Hire a lawn ser­vice to con­tin­ue mow­ing your grass while you’re away to main­tain the appear­ance that some­one is home.

2. Trim hedges by your win­dows.

Bur­glars active­ly look for tall hedges that allow them to go unseen while break­ing through a win­dow. If the hedges are too high, neigh­bours won’t see any break-ins.

Sim­ply trim­ming these hedges low removes these hid­ing spots and increas­es the chances that bur­glars will skip your home and tar­get a more con­cealed home instead.

3. Con­sid­er land­scap­ing deter­rents.

Con­sid­er plac­ing thorny or prick­ly bush­es by your win­dows for an added deter­rent. The more dif­fi­cult you make it for bur­glars, the low­er your risk of a break-in.

4. Add light­ing.

Low-volt­age and motion-trig­gered lights are great ways to keep your prop­er­ty well-lit with­out sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­ing your ener­gy bill. Bur­glars tend to tar­get homes with dark exte­ri­ors, allow­ing them to avoid detec­tion as they enter the prop­er­ty. So by adding a lit­tle light­ing to your land­scap­ing, you can help to deter the bad guys.

5. Install or rein­force fenc­ing.

A high-qual­i­ty fence can add anoth­er lay­er of home secu­ri­ty, mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for bur­glars to enter your prop­er­ty. If you already have fenc­ing, ensure it is stur­dy and in good con­di­tion. Scru­ti­nize it to iden­ti­fy any weak points or dam­age. If nec­es­sary, rein­force any posts or gates. For greater secu­ri­ty, con­sid­er keep­ing gates locked at all times unless you are active­ly using the prop­er­ty.

6. Secure valu­ables, lawn equip­ment, etc.

A lawn lit­tered with toys, tools or valu­able items sig­nals to bur­glars that the occu­pants aren’t too vig­i­lant about their home secu­ri­ty. If items are left care­less­ly in the yard, maybe a door is unlocked too, or a win­dow is left open at night?

Keep your prop­er­ty tidy by clean­ing up any items and secur­ing them in a shed, garage, or house. This improves the appear­ance of your land­scap­ing but also helps to keep bur­glars at bay.

Be sure to com­bine these strate­gies with oth­er home secu­ri­ty mea­sures.

The tips above can help to reduce your risk of becom­ing a tar­get. Still, they are not meant to replace oth­er essen­tial secu­ri­ty mea­sures, such as a home secu­ri­ty sys­tem or secu­ri­ty cam­eras. For per­son­al­ized guid­ance on how to increase your home secu­ri­ty, con­tact our experts at PROTECTION PLUS today.