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As more and more Brits
start to enjoy the long summer evenings and relax in their gardens over the upcoming bank holidays, new research by over 50s
insurance provider RIAS reveals that gardens across Great Britain are worth £9.3 billion with green-fingered
gardeners investing the huge sum in kit to look after and upgrade their gardens.
The RIAS ‘Cash
in the Garden’ report reveals that Great British gardens could have a total value of up to £5,000
per household, covering the garden shed, its contents and other items including solar powered lighting and greenhouses.
With a particular passion for gardening the over 50’s, who between them clock up 8 million of the UK’s
gardens worth £5.5 billion alone. In addition, today’s over 50s are spending almost £200 each year on plants,
shrubs and lawn maintenance to ensure sure their gardens are in full bloom come summer – which collectively amounts
to an annual £1.54bn.
The age-old garden shed is the most popular item across Great Britain and is found
in over half of all gardens nationwide (54%), and in almost two thirds (60%) of over 50s’ gardens. The shed is followed
by solar-powered lights, which feature in a third of over 50s’ gardens (33%), and greenhouses found in a quarter (25%).Once the dumping ground for the
children’s old toys, dirty football boots and outgrown bikes, garden sheds are now home to garden items and equipment
at a cost of around £1,386, meaning that nationwide garden sheds are collectively worth £7bn, and those belonging
to the over 50s alone can be valued at £4.4bn. Almost half (47%) of over 50s risk being uninsured up to the value of
£2.6 billion because they may not have any insurance cover in place to protect their garden items. Just 4% of
over 50s equivalent to 320,000 gardens have taken out additional cover to ensure their gardens’ contents are covered.With eight out of ten (88%) over
50s getting their hands dirty and not enlisting the professional help of a gardener, having the right kit is vital. Popular
domestic gardening tools that over 50s use, such as spades, forks and rakes feature in over three quarters (78%) of all garden
sheds, along with smaller gardening tools (77%) and lawnmowers (64%)-With the typical lawnmower costing just under £150,
that’s a huge £768 million towards the overall value of over 50s’ garden sheds across the country.Over 50s in the South West and
Wales are most likely to splash the cash on their gardens each year than anywhere else in the country, shelling out an average
of £284 per garden that’s over 40% more than their counterparts in the North East.
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