Even though your glorious garden might be a little dried up round the edges, following a scorcher of a summer, you might find that it’s much more valuable than you think.

Each year we spend around £5 billion on garden items with around a third of this spent on plants, according to the Horticultural Trades Association. Yet few of us check our home insurance policies to make sure that our gardens are adequately covered.

Insurer, More Th>n, estimates that our gardens are worth £52 billion plus, or an average of around £3,000 per garden, which includes plants, shrubs, furniture, tools, bicycles and other sports equipment. Cornhill Direct also confirms that we have a small fortune stashed away at the bottom of the garden.

A Place To Escape The Missus
Often used for a secret fag or to get away from the missus, garden sheds are actually stuffed with valuables such as lawn mowers, bikes, garden chairs, electric tools and barbecues worth an average total of £2,000. Even so, 20% of us don’t bother to fit a lock and, if there is a lock, many don’t bother to lock it. Cornhill Direct spokesperson Mark Bishop said that garden sheds are very attractive to thieves and that we should keep the bare minimum in our sheds and get a decent lock put on them.

Who Covers What?
Despite having made this sizeable investment in our backyards, people may not be aware that their outdoor treasures may not be fully insured because most insurers place limits on garden coverage. Gardens are covered under home insurance and some, such as Churchill Insurance and Norwich Union Direct, will only provide cover of £250 for items left in the open. However, as spending on gardens has been rising, other insurers have been increasingthe level of cover they offer. Nationwide has just launched new household insurance that offers up to £1,000 for the contents of your garden as standard. Saga also recently enhanced its home contents policy and now provides cover of £3,500 for gardens. Only a few such as More Th>n and Esure cover plants as well. They provide up to £2,000 and £1,000 respectively.

Worth pointing out is that locking things away gives extra financial protection. For example, Churchill Insurance will provide insurance protection for a bicycle up to the value of £2,000 if it is locked away in an outbuilding or garage but will not cover it if left in the garden.

70% Are Underinsured
Considering we are supposed to have around £3,000 worth of goods in our garden and the Association of British Insurers says that 70% of us are underinsured when it comes to contents insurance, you may find that your existing insurer doesn’t cover many of your garden items. It’s worth checking with your insurer to see if you need to list some items separately.

Often we forget to add newly bought expensive garden items to our contents insurance and before you realise it, you’re drastically underinsured and, in the event of having to make a claim, you could find that you are simply not covered.

It is worth making sure you have adequate home insurance cover for the garden because around a quarter of us with a garden have suffered a theft from our backyard in the past two years, according to More Th>n. The most frequently stolen items are expensive plants and flowers; bicycles; clothes from the washing line; gardening equipment; and lawn movers. However, RIAS, the insurer for the over 50s, reports that it receives a high number of claims from damage to gardens from cows trampling over fences and plants.

Although the number of household burglaries has fallen over the past decade, as we have improved home security, More Th>n warns that with identity theft nw the fastest growing crime in the UK, thieves are on the look out for things like credit cards, purses, handbags and wallets. If you have windows open, make sure that these types of items are out of the view of would-be criminals.

Ten top tips to protect your garden:

1- Photograph valuable garden items and keep receipts.

2- Tell your insurer when you buy new expensive items.

3- If you open windows, keep handbags and valuables out of sight.

4- If it’s moveable either bolt it to the ground or lock it up. Keep large items such as statues and pot plants near the house and tie them or weigh them down.

5- Fit British Standard quality window locks and lock windows when you are out.

6- Also fit quality locks to garages and garden sheds. Lock valuable items away such as tools and lawn mowers in a garage or outbuilding.

7- Install security lights in the garden and alarms on sheds and garages.

8- Consider an infra-red beam for valuable garden equipment. It needs to be high enough to avoid animals but pick up human activity.

9- Place thorny plants around gates, fences and walls to deter burglars. Dense hedges can also keep thieves out.

10- Lay a gravel path around the house – it’s noisy to walk or drive on and is a good deterrent for any would-be thief.
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