The Best Fire-Retardant Plants for Your Home Landscape

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Help Save Your Home From Brush Fire

As an electronic graphics operator working on live news in the Los Angeles market for more than a decade, I can tell you that the most heartbreaking events to cover are brush fires. Yet, on occasion there are miraculous accounts of homes saved in the midst of total devastation. Sometimes this is due to pure luck... winds shift or unexpected rain begins to fall. But more often than not, these homes are saved by design. During major fire news coverage, firefighters will always take an opportunity to praise homeowners who are aggressive in maintaining a defensible space around their homes and using landscaping as part of their overall fire prevention strategy. In the face of fire—when minutes count—the right plant choices can make the difference between saving or losing your home.

The stunning images shown below are used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr. There is a link below each one if you'd like to leave a comment for the photographer, or browse additional samples of their work.

Kangaroo Paw 

Evergreen Perennial

Protect Your Home from Brush Fires 

Create a Defensible Space

  • Clear away dry grass, brush, and dead leaves within 30 feet from your home.
  • Focus on low-growing, fire-retardant ornamental plants in your landscape design.
  • Regularly prune all plants to remove dead wood, excess stems, and branches.
  • Trees and large shrubs should be placed at least 10 feet apart from each other, and away from your home. Trees should never overhang your roof.
  • For trees 18-feet tall or more, prune lower branches 6 feet off the ground to help prevent ground fires from spreading into treetops.
  • Firewood and scrap woodpiles should be stacked at least 30 feet from any structures, especially your home. Clear away flammable vegetation located within 10 feet of woodpiles.
  • Butane and propane tanks should be kept at least 30 feet from any structures. Clear away flammable vegetation located within 10 feet of butane or propane tanks.
  • Water just enough to keep plants healthy. Too much promotes excess plant growth and creates more potential fire fuel, while too little lowers the moisture content and causes plants to burn more readily.
  • Most importantly, the 30-foot defensible space must be maintained regularly in order to be effective.
  • Note: In extremely hazardous areas, the California Public Resources Code, Section 4291, requires clearance of flammable vegetation for a minimum distance of 30 to 100 feet from structures.

Verbena Seeds on eBay 

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French Lavender 

Evergreen Shrub

Fire Ecology 

A Few Facts Courtesy of Wikipedia

Fire ecology is concerned with the processes linking fire behavior and ecological effect. Campaigns such as "Smokey Bear" in the USA have molded public opinion to believe that wildfires are always harmful to nature. This view is based on the outdated belief that ecosystems progress toward an equilibrium and that disturbance (such as fire) disrupts the harmony of nature. More recent ecological research has shown, however, that fire is an integral component to the function and biodiversity of many communities, and that the organisms within those communities have adapted to withstand and even exploit it. Fire suppression, in combination with other human-caused environmental changes, has resulted in unforeseen changes to ecosystem dynamics and species composition and has backfired to create some of the largest, most intense wildfires yet. Land managers are faced with tough questions about where it is appropriate to restore a fire regime and how to do it. These questions are crucial today as we see the consequences of years of fire suppression and the continued expansion of people into fire-adapted ecosystems.

Fire Retardant Plants

Firefighting Fundamentals 

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The Heart Behind the Hero

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Wildland Firefighting Fundamentals

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Fire in Their Eyes: Wildfires and the People Who Fight Them

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Wall of Flame: The Heroic Battle to Save Southern California

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Firefighter's Handbook on Wildland Firefighting: Strategy, Tactics and Safety

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Firescaping Resources 

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Introduction to California Chaparral (California Natural History Guides)

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Landscape Plants For Dry Regions: More Than 600 Species From Around The World

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Plants And Landscapes For Summer-dry Climates Of The San Francisco Bay Region

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Fire, Chaparral, And Survival In Southern California

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Stories from the Front Lines 

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Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire

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Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire

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Fire on the Rim: A Firefighter's Season at the Grand Canyon

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Smokechasing

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Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines Battling Wildfires

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Fighting Fire... Up Close & Personal 

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Rescue Me 

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Rescue Me - The Complete First Season

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Rescue Me - The Complete Second Season

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Rescue Me - The Complete Third Season

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Rescue Me

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Sweet William Seeds on eBay 

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Toyon, Christmas Berry 

Evergreen Shrub or Small Tree

What's the Buzz on Fire Retardant Plants? 

Here's What Bloggers are Saying About Fire Retardant Plants

NMIT Media Release: After the devastation comes Regrowth and 'fire ...
The NMIT display, including Quentin's and a number of other student garden designs, reflected the ability of many plants to re-grow and regenerate and also highlighted the use of fire retardant plants, both native and non-native, ... Also available at the display was advice and information on strategies to help minimize fire risk around the home through the evaluation of vegetation used in landscaping. ?If the plants are not easily ignited then they can improve the ...
Fireproof homes | Sunshine Coast Gardening | Landscaping, Flowers ...
While he is unaware of any plants which are totally fire-retardant, Bob suggested the use of evergreens in the garden, such as lilly pillies, philodendrums and gardenias. However, his biggest tip was to have a ?green zone? around the ...
Knowledge Center for Silk Plants and Trees - iContact Community
What kind of plants and trees will create a landscape theme? An endless array of silk plants and trees can be categorized into many popular tree varieties that can centralize an indoor theme. Palms trees are a universal choice for themeing ... Of coarse, there are several plant manufacturer to purchase silk trees from. In addition to price, there are several factors to consider when selecting your silk plants and trees. Fire retardant foliage may be the most important ...
Knowledge Center for Silk Plants and Trees - iContact Community
Silk plants and trees are an affordable promising solution to several design challenges for a commercial landscape - whether you are considering live or artificial plants for a shopping mall, casino, hotel, restaurant or other ... Of coarse , there are several plant manufacturer to purchase silk trees from. In addition to price, there are several factors to consider when selecting your silk plants and trees. Fire retardant foliage may be the most important element, ...

Iris Bulbs on eBay 

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Yucca, Our Lord's Candle 

Evergreen Perennial

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This Lens Supports the Squidoo Fire Aid Challenge

SquidAid Squidoodles are designed by and appear courtesy of © 2007 LensDoc (Kirsti A. Dyer). Some rights reserved.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.

Learn More About the Squidoo Fire Aid Challenge

The California Fires & How You Can Help 

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Thanks for Visiting 

Did you learn something new about protecting your home?

Fire Retardant Plants

WindyWinters wrote...

Great List of Plants and a Great Reference. The dry weather this summer was very scary. Good to know what plants may aid in saving your home. We have some irises along the back of our house. I guess it's a great idea to leave them there. These plants must store a lot of water in their leaves. Thanks for the info. :)

ReplyPosted November 01, 2009

GonnaFly wrote...

What an excellent lens particularly for those of us in fire-prone areas.

ReplyPosted October 30, 2009

jeffwend wrote...

Beautiful lens. Living in Michigan we luckily don't have to worry about fires the way that people have to out West. It's nice to know that such plants are available and that they look so good too.

ReplyPosted October 28, 2009

JaguarJulie wrote...

Kim -- a most interesting lens! With the fires we have had in Florida, as well as other states, this is certainly a consideration for our homes.

ReplyPosted May 20, 2009

Demaw wrote...

I once remember reading about some wildfires that consumed most of the homes in a neighborhood except the homes whose owners understood their terrain. The outside of their homes had brick, cement and maybe stucco with no wood trim or ornaments and landscaped with fire retardant plants that were not too close to the houses. The area if I recall was somewhere in California. These homes were spared from this particular fire. The homeowners themselves were surprised.

ReplyPosted March 03, 2009

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Lensmaster KimGiancaterino, aka Kim Giancaterino, has been a member since October 30 2006, has rated 7,621 lenses, favorited 3,761, and has created 278 lenses from scratch. This member's top-ranked page is "Daylight Saving Time Ended November 1, 2009". See all my lenses

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