Here’s the latest weapon in the fight against crime – a privet hedge.
It’s one of the features recommended by police as a new garden is unveiled to show how green-fingered householders can use the land around their house as an extra line of defence against burglars.
As well as impenetrable hedges, other suggestions include choosing plants with thorns or spiky leaves to deter crooks or tall, thin trees such as cypress varieties that provide nowhere to hide.
Police help create a burglar-beating garden, with key suggestions outlined above
Gravel pathways would make it impossible for anyone to silently creep towards the house, while pergolas can be designed with rotating posts to make them impossible to climb.
The crime-busting garden design is one of the exhibits at the Hampton Court Flower Show next month.
Sergeant David Lucy, of the Metropolitan Police’s Designing Out Crime Unit, said: ‘Many of these simple, affordable tips can prevent burglars getting inside homes.’
With clear-up rate for burglaries last year standing at just three per cent in England and Wales, critics might wonder if police should be more concerned with the efficiency of the thin blue line than with herbaceous borders.
‘Some people will be cynical,’ said Sgt Lucy. ‘But we have to be clever managing police resources. If this stops another elderly lady being a victim, then it’s worth it. We’re doing this for the right reasons.’
Secured By Design, the crime prevention group that contributed to the £20,000 cost of the garden, said: ‘This can free up officers to catch criminals.’
The 27ft by 18ft garden was designed by horticultural students Jacqueline Poll and Lucy Glover, who said: ‘This has made me much more safety-conscious about my own garden.’
Your own supergrass, above: Slender-stemmed shrubs such as verbena don’t grow too thickly, so you can see anyone behind them
Other tips include robust steel boundary fencing that cannot be kicked in or cut, dusk-to-dawn low-voltage lights to ensure visibility in the garden at night, and wi-fi-enabled CCTV cameras.
Spiky plants can also be grown on shed roofs to stop intruders using that as a way into the house. And to prevent burglars getting into the outbuildings themselves, police suggest alarmed padlocks.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Flower Show runs from Tuesday July 3 to Saturday July 8.