Ninety two per cent of homeowners have gardens and one in ten will be shelling out more than £500 to improve it over the forthcoming summer months.

“With the lighter evenings and pleasant summertime temperatures, many of us will be spending more time and money on our gardens,” said Nikki Sellers, head of Home Insurance for esure.

“However, it is all too easy to retire inside as it gets darker, leaving items unsecured in our gardens, or sheds unlocked, as easy targets for opportunistic thieves.”

Things like garden furniture, shrubs, patio/decking, ponds and water features all add to the value of the garden’s contents.

The survey found that one in ten do not securely lock their garden shed, despite the fact that 76% own a garden shed with contents worth an average of £550.

The figures also show that more than 1.4 million homeowners have been victims of garden shed theft since last summer, so esure recommends that homeowners lock up their sheds, add security lighting and consider noisy surfaces such as gravel to deter potential thieves.

In response to the survey results, esure have doubled their garden cover to £2,000.

Learn more about esure home insurance