Creating a Defensive Perimeter Around Your Homestead

You’ve built your homestead, raised livestock and crops and organized a system that will help you live on your own indefinitely. You have a sustainable water source, bought equipment to care for your land and invested in renewable energy. You’re ready to exist off the grid.

All this shouldn’t go to waste because you didn’t plan a home defense method. Whether you live on a homestead or not, safety should be your number one priority. Creating a defensive perimeter around your homestead will take some work, but it’s worth it to ensure you, your family and your belongings are safe from intruders.

What Is a Defensive Perimeter?

The primary goal of a defensive perimeter is to protect your home and property from any intruders. These could be humans, animals or any other pests that are planning to harm your property or possessions. It’s a preventative measure to detect potential threats and something that won’t allow entry to your property. It also strives to discourage any potential threats from entering the property.

You want a secure and safe system that can protect against intruders and detect risks. That’s why many homesteaders choose to add a layered effect for personal and property protection. Every year, over one million burglaries occur, so make sure your homestead is secure against intruders. 

Besides that, you can protect your crops and livestock from other animals and pests with a defensive perimeter, too. Fences, certain plants and guard animals may help steer away from potential dangers to your food sources. Here are 13 tips to protect your homestead.

Tip 1: Make a Priority of Who and What to Protect

Before building and creating a defensive perimeter around your property, you should consider who and what you want to protect. Your priority is not to figure out the math to know how much fencing you need to build your perimeter. Your number one priority should be protecting yourself and your family, so you need to outline what you want to defend clearly.

If you don’t know what you’re defending, making the perimeter won’t be effective. Who and what you’re protecting determines how you will go about protecting it. If one part of your defense fails, the rest can fail, too, leading to more imminent danger. Write out everything you want to keep alive and protected, so you have a perspective on your perimeter defense plan.

Besides your family, you may want to consider protecting livestock, water supply, wood supply, fuel supply, buildings, gardens and pets. Rate how vulnerable each of these things is to potential intruders. This may also be an excellent time to evaluate their vulnerability to natural disasters too.

Tip 2: Invest in Quality Locks

The second tip in creating a defense perimeter for your homestead is investing in quality locks for your doors, windows and gates. A solid lock system can keep intruders out of your home and buildings. Window locks are just as important as door locks when it comes to keeping your homestead protected.

Install deadbolt locks, and ensure your doors aren’t hollow. Invest in metal-insulated or solid-wood doors. Use longer screws for door hinges as well. Strengthen your windows with security film and install burglar bars when you’re away and at night. Add heavy-duty locks to your doors, windows, gates and safes and any other building that houses your supplies.

Tip 3: Add a Video Surveillance System and Lights

Security systems do a great job of keeping intruders away from your homestead. Whether you invest in a high-end system or keep a few cameras and lights out, you’re putting up a defense to protect your home. If you suspect someone or something is lurking near your home, you could even set up a few trail cameras to find out who or what it may be. To be inconspicuous, make sure your trail cameras and alarm systems don’t have bright flashes.

Burglars don’t want you to see them, so if they see multiple cameras around your property, they won’t enter. Besides that, you can review the videos to see what kind of pests are in your garden so you can properly get rid of them. If you want to add lights, consider motion-sensor lighting. The change from dark to light at night can notify you that someone or something is lurking on your property.

Tip 4: Get a Guard Dog

Having a furry companion trained to protect the home can be one of the best ways to deter intruders and pests. It’s an added layer of protection for your homestead. Larger breeds of dogs, like German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Retrievers, are typically better for guarding a homestead, but even little dogs can serve as an alarm within your home. Once a burglar or pests like a deer or rabbit hears that bark, they’ll likely step away from your property.

Even if you don’t want a dog, you could keep a large dog bone in a prominent spot, whether that’s in your yard or on your front porch. A criminal may observe that and step back, thinking that you might have a guard dog. However, it would be much better for your safety and create a defensive perimeter around your homestead if you had a dog. 

Tip 5: Determine Fencing Needs

A physical fence is a great way to create a defensive perimeter around your home. Go back to your list of priorities of what you want to protect. Then, measure the distance around those areas so you can install a fence. You can use wooden posts, chain-link or barbed wire as your fencing material. Also, be sure to put your fence a few inches in the ground for stability so people and pests can’t get in from below the fence.

There’s debate whether a higher fence is better than a lower fence. A taller fence would make it more difficult for intruders to enter. If you’re more worried about animals entering your property, then a higher fence is probably better. However, if a human criminal sees a high fence, they might think there’s something valuable behind it and try to get in. A lower fence is a sign to them that you have little to nothing valuable enough to take.

Tip 6: Layer Your Defenses

The most effective way of creating a defensive perimeter is to layer your defense around your home. Think of your homestead like an onion. An onion has multiple layers you have to get through before you get to the center. Your family and living quarters are likely the innermost layers of that onion. You want to put up everything you can around your family to protect them.

On the outside, you might have your fencing, trees and shrubbery. Then, you can add defenses that are within your boundaries but not your house yet. These include the guard dog, motion lights and cameras. After that, you can focus on your locks, windows and doors. Then, you might have interior home defense, like a security system. Finally, you can equip your family with home defense weapons and tactics and put any money, documents and valuables in a safe.

Tip 7: Camouflage Your Homestead

If you live on a homestead, you probably aren’t trying to make your home look incredibly appealing. You’ve likely gone away from modern looks and are trying to go back to your roots of growing your own food, sourcing water and using renewable energy. An expensive-looking home isn’t your priority — keeping your homestead safe is. If you have a bunker, make sure to camouflage that, too.

However, even a homestead can look appealing to others, especially if you put your property on display. Do your best to keep your home under the radar. You don’t have to camouflage your home and buildings physically, but avoid bright colors, be sure to put away heavy equipment and vehicles, and put your livestock away at night. Additionally, use blinds or curtains in your home so others can’t take a peek inside and look at any valuables you might have.

Tip 8: Plant Shrubs and Trees Around Your Homestead

You can use natural elements and your landscape to defend your home, too. Use your lawn and acreage to your advantage. Trees and shrubs around your home give you plenty of shade, and they give you more privacy. Adding foliage around your home can prevent intruders from seeing inside and can make it more challenging for them to enter your property.

However, you have to be strategic when choosing plants. Intruders may use plants to their advantage to conceal themselves. Make sure your trees and hedges don’t block your view of potential burglars and pests. Some of the best defensive plants include firethorn, gooseberry and golden bamboo. You can use other plants in your garden to deter animals and pests as well. 

Tip 9: Have a One-Way-In and One-Way-Out Driveway

Setting up a defensive perimeter around your homestead is an excellent way to protect your property from intruders. The more deterrents you have around your homestead, the better. Another tip for your defensive perimeter is to have a one-way driveway. If you have multiple trails and access points on your property, you’re making it easier and more inviting for intruders.

If someone were to drive up your driveway, make it so the only way they can get out is back through your driveway. You could defend your driveway as well. Add an entry gate and keep it on a power-controlled system. Additionally, line your driveway with logs that you can easily roll out to trap an intruder in your driveway.

Tip 10: Allow Some Open Space

Even though you may want to have as many barriers as possible for your homestead, you do need some open space. If your yard is full of trees, shrubs and fences, it could make it more challenging or even impossible to recognize if you have an intruder on your property. Without open space, someone or something can easily hide behind foliage and obstacles to get where they need to go.

Keep an unobstructed view of your property’s entry point, buildings and garden. This gives you a clearer view out of your homestead’s windows to check for potential danger. Plus, it makes it more difficult for trespassers to conceal their movements, making them more vulnerable and allowing you to make your defensive moves.

Tip 11: Hang Foreboding Signs

Another defense mechanism for your defensive perimeter is to hang foreboding signs. If an intruder reads a warning sign of sorts, they will be less likely to enter the property. For example, if you have a large dog, you can hang “beware” signs for your dog. This warns the intruder that a dog would attack them if they try to enter your property.

Other signs include “No Trespassing,” “Trespassers will be shot,” “Private Property,” and “Consequences If You Trespass.” These could stop someone in their tracks. Hang these all-around your property at various locations.

Tip 12: Install Man-Made Obstacles

To further enhance your defensive perimeter, you can set booby traps around your property. Sometimes, pests like rabbits, birds and deer may be stealing food from your garden. You can set a wire that shakes a can to startle them or even set up a scarecrow. These will deter other pests from getting to your food supply.

For human intruders, you can set up harmless obstacles. These include tripwires, pit traps, perimeter alarms and anything else that could startle an intruder. If you notice a booby trap has gone off, you can set a camera in that area to potentially catch the intruder on video surveillance.

Tip 13: Invest in Home-Defense Training

Finally, the best way to protect yourself is to learn some basic home self-defense tactics. You should incorporate self-defense into your lifestyle for you and your family members. Gather a selection of non-lethal, self-defense weapons that your family can use in serious emergencies. Keep a small stash of them in each room of your home and every building on your homestead.

Find classes either online or in-person where you and your family can learn how to properly defend yourself and your home if there is a trespasser, whether human or wild animal. Some of the weapons you could take advantage of are golf clubs, hammers, baseball bats and pepper spray.

Keeping Your Homestead Safe

With these tips, you can ensure your defensive perimeter will keep everyone out and your family and valuables safe. No matter where you live, safety is your priority.

[Note: This was a guest post.]