Garden advice for home insurance customers

Home insurance customers keen to maintain their garden through the dry conditions this summer have been given some useful tips.

United Utilities recently announced the first hosepipe ban in the north-west of England for 14 years and other areas across the country could be soon affected

Although this will affect many gardens, Kris Collins, gardening editor, Amateur Gardening, said that plants such as Lavender or Jerusalem Sage could be worth planting as they do not require too much water.

He also has some tips on saving water, including using water butts and water retaining crystals or gels.

If you save your bath or your shower water, so called 'grey' water, even though it will have things like soap in them, the soap you use on your body should be fine with your plants, he added.

So if you have soapy bath water I would use that rather than drawing from the tap, to stop any water going to waste.

Meanwhile, anyone with expensive equipment in their gardens, is advised to keep them locked up in sheds in order to avoid any claims on a home insurance policy .