Fire-safe garden

The wildfire season sounded an ominous early warning this year when 78 homes in the foothills and mountains around Santa Barbara were engulfed by flames in early May. It was a harsh reminder of how vulnerable houses can be in fire season, particularly in a dry year like this.

But homeowners facing a third straight dry summer needn’t feel completely powerless against the vagaries of wildfire. Experts say there are ways to plan your landscape to at least reduce your risk of serious damage or complete loss if a fire were to erupt outside your house or sweep through your neighborhood.

The Master Gardeners of Sonoma County, FireSafe Sonoma, Cal Fire and the Healdsburg Garden Club have teamed up to create a Fire Safe Demonstration Garden beside the Cal Fire station off Lytton Springs Road in Healdsburg.

“Less than normal rainfall and unseasonably warm temperatures are suggesting that we could have an early and active fire season,” said Caerleon Safford of the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Services. “Now is the time for homeowners to prepare for the long hot dry summer ahead.”

The 50-by-100-foot garden features several distinct areas, zoned by water needs, including a succulent garden of agava, aloe, sedums and euphorbia and a patio garden with various varieties of verbena, teucrium, alyssum and, for height and shade, olive and strawberry trees.

The garden is complete with flagstone paths laid using stones dug up by state firefighter Doug Jones, who did a lot of the hard labor. It serves to show homeowners that a firesafe landscape needn’t look denuded; it can be attractive and practical at the same time. A drip system is purposely installed above ground so people can see how it is put together.

The public is free to come and view the garden at any time. The station is staffed all summer, but in winter park at the gate and walk up to avoid the risk of being locked into the parking lot.

“We think this garden is a great thing,” said Cal fire Battalion Chief Kim Thompson. “We have a lot of residents coming to our station for fire safety issues and burn permits. So it’s great for us to send them over to look at the garden where they can learn even more about defensible space. Our staff has embraced the idea and been great about volunteering their time to help out.”

Starting out, the area around the fire station was overrun with Bermuda grass. The project was delayed for a year while crews battled it down with spray and pumice over sheets of heavy cardboard. Planting began last fall.

Master gardeners stress that there are no plants that are completely fire resistant. But there are some that are less flammable than others. And more importantly, there are some plants that should be avoided, like juniper, pine, spruce and fir, which are resinous and highly flammable.

“And just because a plant is a California native doesn’t mean it’s fire safe,” said Alison Ogden, another master gardener who was part of the garden team. “They dry up quickly in the fall and they’re like tinder on the ground.”

Plants picked for the fire-safe demonstration garden not only are less flammable, but are drought-resistant as well as eye-catching. There is low-growing Ceanothus (both the glorious horizentalis “Yankee Point” and the “Carmel Creeper”), Achillea “Fireland” Yarrow, Coreopsis “Flying Saucers” and Kniphofia or Torch Lilies, among others.

There are also good rules of thumb to follow when designing and maintaining what fire officials call “a defensible space” around your home of 100 feet.

“You want to plant so you don’t create a ladder to your eaves,” said Betty Miller, a master gardener and co-leader of the project.

“A lot of people are used to having roses and plantings next to the house go all the way up. That creates a ladder right to your roof. You want just low things next to the house. The further away you get you can start having some plants with height.”

Also, plant trees and shrubs far enough apart so they don’t “create a big fireball” if one catches fire, she added.

Other basic tips include:

Keep trees trimmed at least 10 feet from chimneys and remove dead branches hanging over structures.

Remove build-up of needles and leaves from the roof and gutters.

Remove dead and dying plants, fallen leaves, needles, twigs, bark, cones, pods and small branches.

Increase the spacing between plants.

Regularly maintain your landscape with pruning, weed control and adequate irrigation.

When clearing vegetation, use care in operating equipment like lawnmowers that could ignite a fire.

To see the garden, one would never guess it was designed with fire in mind. Gardeners took care to pick plants that are nicely ornamental within a landscape — such as a Strawberry Tree, thyme, verbena, alyssum and teucrium.

Much of the information about fire-resistant plants is anecdotal and not tested scientifically, according to the master gardeners. But the plants tend to have certain common characteristics. For instance, they tend to be broad-leaf deciduous trees or thick-leaf evergreens. Leaves generally are supple, moist and easily crushed. Shrubs are low-growing (2 feet) with minimal dead material. Taller shrubs are clean with little dead wood and sap is water-like, without a strong odor.

Laura Tietz, a Healdsburg resident who last summer started organizing entire neighborhoods around Fitch Mountain to start firescaping, said the demonstration garden is “a marvelous idea.”

“It gives people a chance to see the kind of plants they should be putting in and replacing some of the other ones. There are a whole bunch of plants people have in their gardens that should be removed but then they wonder what they should put in.”

Tietz said on her own property she ripped out, among other things, Scotch broom, juniper, acacia and bay trees, pampas grass and a lot of “ladder plants,” small trees that can lead up into a canopy of larger trees.

She said when she moved in she couldn’t see neighboring properties and homes. Now she can. But the less brushy look is a new aesthetic she believes people just need to get used to seeing until that becomes the new normal.

“We’ve cleaned out almost all the underbrush. My neighbors are doing the same thing,” she said. “My plan is eventually to go all the way around Fitch Mountain, which may take a number of years, one neighborhood at a time.”

Here's a list of fire-safe plants found in the demonstration garden:

Rubus Pentalobus calycinoides “Emerald Carpet”

Correa “Carmine Bells”

Buddleja davidii

Myoporum parvifolium

Thymus pulegioides “Archer’s Gold”

Thymus “Elfin”

Verbena bonariensis patagonica

Teucrium cossonii Germander and fruticans Bush Germander

Asteriscus maritimus “Gold Coin”

Alyssum “Snow Crystals”

Coreopsis “Nana”

Olive “Majestic Beauty”

Arbutus “Strawberry Tree”

Leonotis Leonorus Lion’s Tail

Atriplex lentiformis Salt Bush

Achillea “Fireland” Yarrow

Coreopsis “Flying Saucers”

Agapanthus “New Blue”

Lavender dentate candicans

Kniphofia “Torch Lily”

Penstemon heterophyllus “Blue Springs”

Armeria maritime Common Thrift

Salvia clevelandii “Alan Chicking”

Salvia “Bees Bliss”

Rosemarinus “Collingwood”

Rosemarinus “Tuscan Blue”

Santolina virens

Santolina chameacyparissus “Nana”

Aloe brevifolia variegate

Aloe maculota

Aloe vera

Bulbine frutescens

Cereus peruvianus

Cotyledon orbiculate

Crassula

Echinopsis hybrid

Euphorbia myrsinites

Gasteria hybrid

Opuntia micodasys and “Santa Rita”

Sedum brevifolium, confusum, rupestris “Angelina,” spurium “Red Carpet,” “Autumn Joy” and telephium “Matrona”

Carpenteria californica

Rhamus californica “Mound San Bruno”

Artemesia “Powis Castle”

Solanum xantii

Ceanothus glorious horizentalis “Yankee Point” and “Carmel Creeper”

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi “Emerald Carpet” Manzanita

Fremontodendrom “San Gabriel”

Phlomis fruticosa

Dodonaea viscose Hopseed Bush

Solanum jasminoides Potato Vine

Erigeron Santa Barbara Daisy

Centranthus ruber Jupiter’s Beard

Salvia greggii “Lipstick”

Gaure lindheimeri

Salvia sonomonsis Creeping Sage

Zauschneria California Fuchsia

Eschsholzia californica

Adenostoma fasciculatum or Greasewood chamise

Adenostoma sparsifolium or Red shanks

Artemisia californica or Sagebrush

Coyote Bush

Coprosma pumila or Prostrate coprosma

Cortderia selloana or Pampas Grass

Cupressus sangentii or Sargent Cypress

Eriogonum fasciculatum or California Buckwheat

Eucalyptus globulus or Blue gum

Fountain Grass

Junipers

Larch

Lonicera japonica or Japanese honeysuckle

Lithocarpus densiflora or Tan Oak

Palms

Pickeringia Montana or Chaparral pea

Pseudotsuga menziesii or Douglas fir

Spartium junceum or Spanish broom

Yew

Hemlock

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.