From BBQs to bicycles, which garden goods are covered by your home insurance?

A garden is an easy target for a thief

Thieves may be more likely to steal your garden furniture than your wallet..so is it time to cement your gnomes to the ground? Whilst we may chuckle about the odd stolen gnome, it's no laughing matter to discover your garden has been raided after a day out.

We love our gardens and take pride in making them beautiful. The recent trend to bring the inside out and create a 'garden room' means we're spending more and more on garden furniture, decking, water features, hot tubs, patio heaters and BBQs. And these things don't come cheap.

It all adds up

If you're not sure how much the items in your garden are worth, our home contents calculator can help you figure it out.

Take a look around your garden and in your shed. Now tot up all the items you've got stored there. Remember to include all the plants and ornaments, garden tools, mower, children's toys and yes, even your gnomes. It could total several thousand pounds.

If thieves got in to your garden and stole your furniture or vandalised your plants, have you got enough cover?

What's covered with garden insurance?

Make sure you check your home insurance policy, as very basic home insurance may not provide any garden insurance.

Like home insurance, protection for things in your garden is split between buildings and contents insurance. So, to make sure you're fully covered you'll need both types of insurance.

Buildings insurance

LV= buildings insurance will cover you for damage to:

• Garden walls, gates and fences
• Drives and footpaths
• Domestic outbuildings, like your shed, and garages
• Swimming pools and tennis courts
• Septic tanks and central heating oil or gas tanks

These are all seen to be part of the structure of your home and therefore covered under your buildings insurance. You'll usually be insured for loss or damage as a result of fire, water or oil leaks, theft, storm or flood (apart from loss or damage to gates or fences caused by storm or flood), subsidence, impact and vandalism. For more information read LV= document of insurance.

At LV=, we also provide cover for the plants in your garden, including your lawn, if they're damaged or stolen, apart from loss or damage caused by storm or flood. So, if thieves steal valuable plants in pots or even dig up hedges and trees – it does happen – then you're covered. Our Home Insurance policy will pay out up to £1,500 in total, or our Home Plus policy covers up to £10,000.

If you want accidental damage for garden structures, you may have to pay a bit extra for this type of cover.

Contents insurance

Check that the contents of your garden are covered by your contents insurance. You'll want to include the items you keep in your shed or garage as well. Things like:

• Lawnmower
• Bicycles
• Gardening tools, including power tools
• Children's outdoor toys
• Garden furniture
• BBQ and patio heaters

Depending on the type of insurance you have, you might find you only have cover for outdoor items if they are locked away overnight or when you're away from the home. Others will provide cover for pots and furniture that can't be locked away, but may stipulate that bicycles and gardening tools need to be securely stored to be insured.

For plants in the garden our Home Insurance policy will pay out up to £2,500 in total, or our Home Plus policy covers up to £10,000. We'll also pay out up £2,500 on Home, or £10,000 on Home Plus, for your contents in the garden.

And what's not covered with garden insurance?

This will vary from policy to policy. Check to see if your home insurance provider excludes high value items because they exceed the limit you can claim for any one item.

So if you have a particularly valuable plant or piece of garden sculpture, it may be worth insuring it separately. The same goes for your ride-on mower or top of the range BBQ.

And if you have any livestock in your garden, such as chickens, or fish in a pond, they are unlikely to be covered by your home insurance.

BBQs and fire safety 

Due to us spending more time at home during the warmer weather, people are having BBQs in the garden or using bonfires to dispose of waste that they can’t drop to their local rubbish tip. So if you’re planning a BBQ or bonfire, there are a few things you need to remember…

Don't leave BBQs unattended 

We know it’s tempting to leave those skewers and sausages cooking while you grab a drink or top up the paddling pool, but please make sure you’ve always got eyes on the BBQ.

Be careful with accelerants

If a fire is slow to start, it can be tempting to use an accelerant to give it a head start, but a little goes a long way and a small spark can quickly become a huge flame, so please be careful.

Know the conditions

We know it’s unlikely in a British summer, but if there’s been no rain for a while, the ground and your plants will be dry and more likely to catch fire from a spark or flame.

Dispose of everything safely

Just because the food has been devoured, doesn’t mean your job as BBQ extraordinaire is done. You’ll need to make sure no coals are glowing, and have all fully cooled down before you discard of them. It would only take a tiny spark for a fire to light in your bin.

Keep a bucket of water to hand

Just in case it gets out of hand, it’s good to know you can stop a flame straight away.

Right, now we know how to host the perfect BBQ (you’ll have to look elsewhere for recipes!) let’s take a look at what’s what when it comes to home insurance and your garden…