Exploring Ideas: Designing Outdoor Living Spaces
When seeing the words ‘security system’, most people think of installed cameras and loud alarms and motion detectors. However, security systems can also be a part of your landscaping design. A security system d
oesn’t have to be strictly technological. Thorn bushes planted in a thoughtful place, lights in the yard, and a light in the street can all act together as a security system to help protect your home.
When you are planning to plant, keep security in mind. Keep trees far enough away so that they will not double as an easy entrance to an unlocked or unsecured window of your home. As a double benefit, avoiding this will also help prevent a tree’s roots from uprooting or damaging the foundation of the home.
Do not only think of the higher entry points to enforce security. Make sure shrubs near the home are short enough where potential thieves cannot hide. If there are tall shrubs, keep them away from the entrances of your home. Perennials are a nice substitute for shrubs if you would like some greenery around your doorstep. Keeping your shrubs trim and tidy will prevent any ideas for a hiding place for thieves.
Make sure not to neglect or forget about the back doorway, either. Most thieves will try there first. If there are no safe looking hiding places, they make look for a house with an easier target down the street.
Keep sheds and garages locked at all times, as these are popular hiding spaces as well.
Clean-cut landscape designs as opposed to tangled and jungle-y looking ones will suggest a more polished and secure home to potential burglars. It’s also possible to use trees or fences as borders to limit visual exposure to your house to give more privacy. Your house will be more exposed if it is accessible from all sides.
There are several plants that can provide good protection for your home while also complimenting the design of your yard. All it takes is a little research. In addition to rose thorn bushes underneath windows, consider spiny plants like the Oregon grape holly. Implementing gravel instead of mulch is also a great idea so intruders cannot silently creep toward or around your property.
If you are going to be out of town for a while, consider setting up an indoor and/or outdoor light timer so the home looks occupied at night.
Landscaping can be used to keep your space looking in great shape and can also double as a safety security system by persuading intruders to skip your home, but only if you keep up with it. Signing up for a maintenance program with the company who installed your landscaping is a great idea. This can also potentially extend your warranties from 6 months to a year based on the terms of your contract.
If you don’t have the time, hire a landscaping company to help. Not mowed grass, overgrown shrubs and weeds, and dead plants can all signal to potential thieves that the house is rarely occupied and therefore safe to enter.
Protect your home by implementing landscaping maintenance program year-round. With a reliable company regularly visiting your property you can be assured that if you need something taken care of it will happen more conveniently for you.
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