PREVENTATIVE PLANTING TO DETER UNWELCOME VISITORS AND ENHANCE YOUR GARDEN AND ITS WILDLIFE

Have you ever thought that while improving your garden you could be making your property a little safer with plants that are unfriendly to intruders and burglars?

There are various hedging plants and shrubs that have defensive systems and will form dense and thorny barriers which will help to protect your property if grown along boundaries, near windows or against walls and fences.

Burglars particularly dislike prickly plants and an accidental brush with a thorn may leave DNA and fragments at the scene of the crime.

Hedges are particularly useful in protecting the boundary of your garden.

Native species that are most suitable and help biodiversity include: Beech, Blackthorn, Box Escallonia, Field maple Hawthorn, Hazel, Holly, Hornbeam Privet, Pyracantha, Yew. Mixed hedges containing some of these species can be designed to suit the location and create a strong boundary, creating shelter and security.

Thorny shrubs that can be used to form dense borders include:

Barberry / Berberis species of various heights

Firethorn / Pyracantha species with coloured berries

Shrub rose / Rosa rugosa species with pink or white flowers and heps/fruit.

Gorse / Genista hispanica

Ornamental bramble / Rubus species

Shrubs which form dense thickets and growth include:

Cotoneaster conspicuous ‘Decorus’ and other taller species

Elaeagnus x ebbingei and E angustifolia

Flowering currant /Ribes species

Symphorcarpus chenaultii ‘Hancock;

Lonicera pileata

Prunus laurocerasus

For more crime prevention advice, contact your area Safer Neighbourhood Team via www.safersuffolk.org.uk, call Suffolk Constabulary on 01473 613500, or ask Neighbourhood Watch via www.suffolk.police.uk

For advice on planting and fencing contact your District Planning Authority and/or Landscape Officer. For advice on hedging the Parish Council or Tree Warden may be able to help you.