How to Improve Your Home Security Landscaping

Shrubs can augment other security measures at your home.

What you plant in your yard and garden affects the safety of your family and home. Security landscaping involves selecting plants and managing your existing landscape to make your home more visible and secure. No home is entirely burglar-proof, but security landscaping will help protect you from a potential thief. If you restrict free access to a prowler, he will look for an easier target.

Things You'll Need

• Pruning shears
• Hedge clippers

Instructions

1. Trim existing shrubbery or bushes to eliminate hiding places for a prowler. Cut tree branches away from your windows or balconies so a burglar cannot use trees or bushes as a ladder.

2. Plant shrubs or trees to enhance your security. If you like privacy, plant cacti, roses or thorny bushes under your windows and at entry doors. Blackberry vines grow fast along fences, are thorny and have seasonal fruit. Upright juniper and barberry grow into dense screens, and their prickly foliage discourages hiding. Ocotillo can fill in a bare corner or rock garden.

3. Plant low-growing shrubs to protect your property while allowing neighbors to observe suspicious activity. Neighborhood Watch members or cruising police cars can quickly scan your home for for anyone lurking around windows or door. Holly and firethorn are decorative, thorny and require minimum care. For dry climates, Spanish bayonet and needle bush are good choices.

4. Ask your local nursery staff or landscaper for suggestions of plants suited to the style of your home, the climate and your soil. Many desirable plants for security work well to reduce water use.

Tips & Warnings

• Stand at the street and look at your house to see what simple changes you can make with minimal impact on your budget. Sometimes it just takes removing an overgrown bush and replacing it with a decorative protective shrub. You can gradually replace aging trees and shrubs over a few years with plants that evolve into a secure landscape.

• Xeriscaping refs to water-conserving landscaping. If you are replacing plants, think about their water requirements.

• If you live in a community with a homeowner association, check that any change in plants conforms to regulations.

References

• University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture: Barrier Plants
• Clemson Cooperative Extension: Barberry