Protect your home from fire by planting a fire safe landscape! Many homeowners have successfully saved their homes from destructive wildfires by employing fire safe landscaping techniques and installing fire resistant plants. Here’s what you can do to help protect your home from a devastating wildfire.
Create a Fire Safe Landscape
There are some simple things that you can do to help safeguard your home in the event of a fire.
- Clean up dead trees and shrubs from around your home. Dead vegetation is fuel for fire, and removing dead leaves and plants reduces the threat of fire around your home.
- Remove “ladder fuels”. This is vegetation that provides an uninterrupted source of fuel for a fire, carrying it from plant to plant. Create pockets of plants and remove plants that might provide fuel to a nearby tree.
- Keep the area around your home well-pruned and watered. Maintaining a green space around your home will help to protect it.
- Trim trees between six and ten feet from the ground.
- Contact your local fire department to learn about fire hazards in your neighborhood.
- Keep firewood at least 30 feet from your home. Store flammable materials in metal containers at least 30 feet from wooden fences and other structures.
- Install smoke detectors and keep them in working order.
Choosing Plants for Your Fire Safe Landscape
The area surrounding your home can be divided into four zones. Choosing the best plants for each zone will help protect your home from fire. Here’s a look at each zone and the best plants to install.
Zone 1
This is the 30 feet around your home on all sides. Plantings should be limited to allow room for fire fighters and fire-fighting equipment in case of an emergency. Good plants for this area include:
- Lily of the Nile
- African Iris
- Pineapple Guava
- Daylily
- Lilac Beauty Lilyturf
- Star Jasmine
- Sunny Skies Periwinkle
Zone 2
Plants in this area should be low growing. Be sure to install an irrigation system in Zone 2. Suitable plants include:
- Compact Strawberry Bush
- Dwarf Bottlebrush
- Ground Morning Glory
- African Iris
- Red Yucca
- Potato Vine
- Silver Dragon Lilyturf
Zone 3
Zone 3 is for low-growing plants and well-spaced trees. Keep volume low. Good plants include:
- Fern Leaf Yarrow
- Purple Rock Rose
- Dwarf Coreopsis
- Bloody Cranesbille
- French Lavender
- Russian Sage
- Mexican Bush Sage
- Ivory Tower Yucca
- Banana Split Soft Leaf Yucca
Zone 4
This is the furthest zone from your house and should be kept as natural as possible. Be selective, and remove highly flammable vegetation. Excellent plants for Zone 4 include:
- Fern Leaf Yarrow
- Carmel Creeper California Lilac
- Victoria California Lilac
- El Dorado Ceanothus
Fire Safe Planting Techniques
Keep these tips in mind when planting in each of the four zones:
- Remove small trees and plants growing under trees. They provide a fuel ladder into the tree crown.
- Space trees 30 feet apart and prune to 8 to 10 feet tall.
- Place shrubs 20 feet from house and prune regularly.
- The first three feet next to your home should have the most drought-tolerant vegetation.
- Provide at least ten feet between islands of shrubs and plant groups.
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