The Aesthetics of Firescaping

By Samantha Gleissner


In my last blog I talked a bit about firescaping and the reasons people may decide against it, I brought up a few reasons why people should reconsider the benefits of firescaping verses what some consider to be negatives. Today I want to talk about the layout of firescaping and the different aspects that should be considered when trying to make your property safe as well as beautiful.

Firescaping, or the process of dividing your property into zones to create the best possible defensible area, involves removing fuels, and carefully selecting your landscape to provide the best protection to your home. There are a total of 3 zones and they are as follows:

Zone 1 is the nearest area to your home and anything near enough to serve as a fire path to your house. This zone should be the most void of fire fuels such as overhanging plants or brush that could act as facilitators for the fire to reach your home. Within this zone it is wisest to choose non-flammable landscape materials and be sure to clean up any fire fuels and debris such as leaf litter in your gutters, which should not be as much of an issue if there are no overhanging trees near your home. Consider decorating this area with fire-safe materials such as stone and concrete paths. This is not to say that you cannot have gardens or plants near your home, the key to keeping a garden and still being Firewise is to keep your plant beds watered. If you keep your planters and gardens well watered the moisture content of the plants will be greater making them less flammable and less likely to act as fuels in the event of a fire. Some common fuels that people may not really think about are door mats, patio furniture pads and pillows, and even hanging peat moss planters, always be sure to look around and consider which average household items could be potential fuels when creating this defensible zone.

Zone 2 is the next closest area to your home stretching from the edge of zone 1 to approximately 100 feet from your home. In this zone there should be well watered and maintained groups of vegetation such as ground cover, perennials and individual trees or shrubs with plenty of space between so that if fire reaches one area it can be contained and avoid spreading throughout the entire zone. Fire-safe materials such as rock or brick walls or concrete paths skirting the islands of vegetation and between zones to prevent fire spread should help protect sections of vegetation.

Finally zone 3 is the farthest zone from your house and should be anything 100 feet beyond your home. In this zone there should be native vegetation that has been thinned and if possible any dryer vegetation or materials should be removed. Zone 3 is the highest risk zone for fire and creating the most defensible space for your home means reducing plant density and fire fuels in this area and even replacing them with fire-safe options. You can find a list of fire-safe alternative plants, firescaping ideas and examples of firescaped homes HERE.

By firescaping your property into these defensible zones you can reduce your risk of home damage during wildfire season. You can make your home beautiful using all kinds of alternative landscaping methods such as stone gardens and paths, reduced brush and overhang means less work cleaning the gutters and raking leaves so you have more time to enjoy your home without the worry of fire dangers. Perhaps the best benefit of firescaping your property is that in the event of a wildfire, a well firescaped property or community can act as a fire break that prevents the wildfire from spreading past the home/community, which allows firefighters to focus on stopping the fire rather than protecting the structures in it’s path.

I hope that this information will help those who are considering firescaping to understand how it works a little more and those who haven’t considered firescaping to understand why they should. Stay Firewise!

http://www.idahofirewise.org/homeowners/firewise-landscaping/