13 May 2025
Garden Insurance: Protecting Your Plants, Trees and Outdoor Structure
3 minutes
For many of us, our garden is our sanctuary, yet it’s a safe guess that you might not have considered the need for insurance to protect your garden. Gardens have become integral to our lifestyle, with many transforming their gardens into outside galleries for art and sculpture, or a blank canvas for innovative hard landscaping and imaginative planting designs.
In this article, we focus on what you have in your garden that should be insured.
Plants and shrubs
Some insurers automatically provide cover for your plants and shrubs within a policy. A trip to the garden centre or a garden wholesaler can be costly, so do consider the overall cost and replacement of your plants and check the levels of cover provided by your policy. There will be a limit per item, so if you’ve splashed out on a magnolia or Japanese maple you may need to increase your insurance cover.
It’s also important to understand the level of cover you have and any exclusions relating to invasive species.
For example:
- The costs of removing invasive plants
- The cost of repairing damage caused by invasive plants
- Legal liability if an invasive plant which you have failed to control damages a neighbour’s property
For more advice on invasive plants please read our article: Japanese knotweed and invasive plants
Trees
Every policy is different, so it is important that you check your policy cover. Cover available when it comes to trees may include:
- Repair costs following damage to your property caused by a tree falling or branch
- Costs to replace trees after an insurance event
- Legal liability for repair costs following damage to your neighbour’s property
- Legal advice and costs if you get into a dispute with your neighbour
Additional costs which aren’t always considered, and which are generally not covered under a home insurance policy, include general maintenance such as:
- Costs for the removal of a fallen tree
- Costs to clear blocked drains and guttering
- Damage to gates, fences, hedges (and in some cases outdoor items) caused by a fallen tree or branch may be limited
For more advice please read our article: Trees and your property: Insurance considerations
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(Image: Thoth by Simon Gudgeon) |
Specialist items such as statues, sculptures and other garden items, particularly if they are of high value, may need to be insured as fine art or outdoor items and not simply included under the general contents figure. Your insurer may cover your sculptures on an agreed value basis. In any case, you should make sure that you have an up-to-date valuation. If you’re thinking of adding a new piece of sculpture to your garden, then read our article: Inspiration to put garden sculpture in the spotlight Outdoor structures and landscapingLandscaping and external structures such as paving, walls, greenhouses, tennis courts, swimming pools, sheds, pergolas, garages and other outbuildings should be included under the buildings section of your household insurance policy either as part of the buildings or outbuildings sum insured. Consider the cost of reinstating them should they be damaged or destroyed and ensure that your overall building sum insured reflects this. You can read more about how to calculate your building sum insured here: Why your home might be underinsured |
ContentsMost policies give some cover for contents that are always kept outdoors, so it’s important to make sure you have added this all up and are insured for the correct amount. Things to include are garden furniture, BBQs, trampolines etc. Generally, insurance cover for outdoor items will be limited and it’s worth checking your policy to see what cover you do have, especially for storm or theft cover. Any machinery you use for your garden, for example mowers, trimmers, forks etc. should be included under your contents sum insured. Higher value machinery such as ride-on mowers may need to be individually noted, check with your broker. It is worth putting together a quick inventory of your garden machinery and tallying up the total – it can be surprisingly high. Whilst doing so, also consider what other items you have in your shed and garage. If you rely on machinery to maintain your land then check that you have the correct liability cover in place should you injure someone or cause damage to property, particularly near public footpaths and public areas. You can read more about this in our article: Rural machinery and tools. |
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How Howden can help
We are high-value home insurance specialists, and the policies we arrange include a generous provision for your garden or grounds. We can tailor a policy to best suit your needs and ensure that you’re fully supported by our specialist team in the event of a claim.
To speak to us about the insurance you have in place for your home and garden, please call 020 8256 4901, or email privateclients@astonlark.com