Garden Tips: Protect your home against wildfires

Kudos to our firefighters for their hard work in fighting the recent wildfires and successfully protecting local homes. Since they do their part in keeping us safe, homeowners should help protect their own properties with fire-resistant landscaping.

In the short term, there are some easy steps to provide some protection to your home. If your home is situated in an area vulnerable to wildfire, the long-term actions of designing and creating a fire-resistant landscape should be undertaken.

▪ Mulches: Many of you know I favor bark mulches in the landscape because they add organic matter to the soil as they decompose, conserve soil moisture, control weeds and keep the soil cooler than rock mulches. However, when working to create a fire-resistant landscape, bark or wood chips should be eschewed in favor of nonflammable gravel or rock mulches. Gravel or rock mulches are best, especially when mulching areas that are close to buildings, fences, wood decks or other wooden structures.

▪ Raised beds: Raised beds are a big trend in gardening right now, but they are predominantly constructed out of wood. In fire-vulnerable areas, it is better to build raised beds with bricks, concrete blocks, rocks, corrugated metal or other nonflammable materials.

▪ Landscape maintenance: While not everyone craves a neat and tidy landscape, yard cleanup and the removal of plant litter is one way to reduce fuel for wildfires. So get busy raking up the layers of dead pine needles and arborvitae foliage beneath evergreens, dry leaves that have piled up in nooks and crannies around the yard, or bunches of dry plant litter anywhere else. If pines or other needled evergreens are situated close to your house, regularly remove their litter that accumulates on the roof and in gutters.

Keeping potential sources of fuel in mind, be sure to store any firewood 30 to 100 feet away from structures and also keep vegetation away from area. Eliminate any piles of plant litter, such as grass clippings, you may be accumulating. Also, remove dead shrubs and tree branches in your landscape. Cut down weeds and brush in areas of your property that are not landscaped.

▪ Lawns: In regions like ours where the supply of irrigation water is a constant concern, green lawns do resist fire well, and efforts should be taken to maintain this green space around your home. However this is not a license to apply water heedlessly. You should still water more deeply, less frequently to save water and promote a healthy green lawn.

▪ Trees: Because I like trees and appreciate the cooling value of their shade, I have 10 trees in my yard. If I was in a fire-vulnerable area, I would need to consider pruning the lower limbs to remove this ladder fuel. Ladder fuel is plant vegetation, green or dry, that permits fire to ascend into the tops of trees. Pruning off limbs from 6 to 15 feet up is recommended. For the health of the trees, this is best done with proper pruning cuts when the trees are young.

▪ Landscape design: Creating a well designed “firewise” landscape is important, especially if located in the wildland-urban interface area. You can help defend your home with sound firewise landscaping. For information, go to www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/22257. For a list of firewise landscaping plant materials, go to bit.ly/2ap8U3G.

This story was originally published August 7, 2016 at 7:25 AM with the headline "Garden Tips: Protect your home against wildfires."