May: Choosing Plants for a Fire-smart Landscape

Creating a fire-smart landscape is about making informed choices that help protect your home while maintaining beauty and function. Your top priorities are proper plant maintenance, along with identifying your available vertical and horizontal planting, spacing and planting breaks. You can read more about spacing below.

Once you identify your available planting space and have ensured your current plants are receiving appropriate care, it's time to narrow down your fire-smart plant choices. The goal is to decrease plant ignitability, fire intensity, and flame spread.

Remember, Zone 0 (0-5 feet from structures and attached decks) is your home's most vulnerable area and as all plants burn, best practice is to keep this space free of plants and other combustible materials.

When selecting plants for your fire-smart landscape beyond 5 feet from your home, you should:

• 1st - Determine plant size and placement:
• What size plant at maturity fits in your allotted space?
• Will there be enough space around plants and plant groupings to act as a fuel break?
• Select low growing plants for underneath large bushes and trees to reduce the risk of fire reaching into trees

Next - Identify what plants will work in your space

Prioritize plants that:

• Contain high moisture and have lower oil, waxes, and/or resins 
• Have an open branching structure so plant debris and embers cannot accumulate
• Are slow growing and easy-care to help you to keep on top of maintenance
• Are drought tolerant and adapted to your local conditions, preferably California native plants.

Avoid plants that:-

• Have tight and dense branching which can catch and accumulate dead, dry material
• Produce and shed excessive dead, dry, or fine debris
• Are invasive and difficult to contain their spread

Remember that regular maintenance, including removing dead material, cleaning up debris, proper pruning and proper irrigation, is essential to maintaining your fire-smart landscape.

How to choose plants
https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-marin-master-gardeners/how-choose

Plants to Avoid | UC Marin Master Gardeners
https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-marin-master-gardeners/plants-avoid#Invasives

Regular maintenance for fire smart landscapes
 https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-marin-master-gardeners/maintain-fire-smart-landscape

Fire-smart plant spacing
https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-marin-master-gardeners/plan-your-fire-smart-landscape#plant-spacing

Zone 0
https://ucanr.edu/site/uc-marin-master-gardeners/plan-your-fire-smart-landscape#zone-0