It’s that time again in Southern California. Fire season is in full force, with high temperatures and bone-dry fuel in our wildlands. As we observe firestorms anger across different parts of the nation, we’ve got our fingers crossed here in Santa Barbara, hoping to keep the wildfires out of our garden. However, in the event our fingers don’t have the fire-preventing magic we need for, it is time to take a crucial look at the way we could safeguard our resources.
Here in fire country, designing with fire in mind is a priority. A well-thought-out landscape design can substantially reduce or even prevent property damage by wildfire. Refer to your state, local or county fire safety tips, and search for creative design options that meet the suggested measures for defensible space. In Santa Barbara, for Example, we follow Cal Fire’s 100 Feet Defensible Space guidelines to develop a general strategy and Choose plant material from the Santa Barbara Fire Department’s High Fire Hazard Area Desirable Plant List.
Your town, county and state likely have similar guidelines and plant listings. With a little legwork and some thought, you should be able to produce a firesafe, water-efficient, functional and — let’s not forget — beautiful picture. Don’t put it off any longer; it is time to begin designing for tragedy.
General guidelines from California fire security resources — plus a couple of design options for creating gorgeous defensible room in your landscape — are all discussed below. Bear in mind, they are guidelines. Nothing can provide absolute protection from loss or damage by wildfire.
Exteriors From Chad Robert
1. Within 30 Feet Your House: Create a Firebreak — the “Lean, Green and Clean” Zone
Apparent a 30-foot area around your house, reducing flammable vegetation. To avoid the “scorched earth” appearance, work with inflammable floorings (for example, stone and tile), mulch (like gravel) and plants using low fuel/high moisture content (like lawn and succulents).
This home’s courtyard provides a firebreak that utilizes noncombustible hardscape and less-flammable plants.
Teton Heritage Builders
“Lean” plant substances contain small gas. Meadows around the house also be a firebreak and provide a gorgeous natural aesthetic.
Sage Design Studios, Inc..
Succulents and cacti make for a stunning fire-resistant plant palette. Succulents and cacti, like aloe, aeonium, echeveria and cereus, save a excellent deal of water in their cells, making them wonderful options to high-fuel plants.
Margie Grace – Grace Design Associates
Saved by the firebreak. Many factors played a role in this structure’s survival of their 2008 Tea Fire at Santa Barbara, including the patch of irrigated lawn that provided an effective firebreak. Because this area had small fuel and higher moisture content, embers were unable to locate anything to burn off.
Jeffrey Gordon Smith Landscape Architecture
Dual-purpose firebreak. Bocce, anybody?
Lewis Aquatech
Water: the supreme inflammable material. Pools and spas provide homeowners who have saved water that can come in handy for fire suppression by firefighters.
Eliminate flammable substances near the house. As much as I love the rustic feel of a wooden deck, even if you’re at a high fire danger zone, it is ideal to replace it using noncombustible materials like rock, concrete or tile unless it had been built to resist an hour of direct fire before catching fire (present code in the majority of high fire regions).
Margie Grace – Grace Design Associates
Fire-resistant wood. If you have your heart set on hardwood decking near the house, look for factory-applied treatments or timber that has a high flame rating. Ipe, the wood used in this backyard, is fire resistant and contains an “A1” fire rating. Additionally, it naturally resists rust, decay, insects and mold, and is a sustainable material.
Urban Nature / Troy Silva Design Group
Use pots full of succulents and statuary close to the house and arrangements to add interest without adding fuel for flame.
Use partially decomposed and damp mulch close to the home.Coarse, dry wood mulch simply increases fire fuel. If you’re searching for more pizzazz on your fireproof mulching, try pea gravel, decorative rock or tumbled glass.
Debora carl landscape design
2. 30-70 Feet (or to Property Line) Around Structures: The Fuel Reduction Zone
How you handle this depends upon slope and vegetation. You’re aiming to decrease the fuel and increase space between crops to enhance the opportunity for decreasing or slowing a flame. Restrict the connections between crops by dividing up large planting areas with native rock, gravel, mulch, decomposed granite, etc.. This makes it tougher for the flame to leap.
Additionally, it is very important to remove leaf litter. This not just tidies your landscape, it will help prevent the spread of flame as well. Try to not have more than three inches of fallen leaves or forest litter.
Exteriors From Chad Robert
Reduce gas ladders. Remove overhanging branches that sweep or touch near the roof or floor. If not trimmed correctly, they will act as a fire pit, sending flames from floor to tree into roof. Your goal is to decrease the connections between fuel sources.
Margie Grace – Grace Design Associates
Steeper slopes require higher gas reduction. The structure in the foreground was one of only four surviving homes out of 12 in this pocket from the Santa Barbara foothills. The slightly shallower slope, the lawn acting as a firebreak along with the homeowners’ fuel-management practices likely saved the house.
In the backdrop, the charred steel framing members of this deck are all that remain of their neighboring house, which stumbled over a steeper slope cloaked in dense vegetation.
Huettl Landscape Architecture
3. Care
as soon as you’ve built and designed your firesafe landscape, maintenance is key to keeping it away. Make sure you:Eliminate logs and stumps embedded in the dirt within 100 ft of structures.Remove leaf clutter from roofs and gutters.Remove tall, dry grasses.Prune bushes and shrubs regularly to eliminate excess dead and growth leaves.Get rid of all of the cuttings and debris ASAP. More: 10 Actual Ways That You Can Help After a Home Fire