How to Create Fire Resistant Landscaping

Wildfires are destructive, deadly, and difficult to stop, but many experts agree that fire-smart landscaping is your home’s best line of defense. Follow these landscape design and maintenance tips to help keep your home safe.

Fire Resistant Landscaping

Designing a Fire Resistant Yard
Use stone patios, walkways, retaining walls, and other hardscape installations to create fire-safe zones
Strategically place flower beds, gardens, rock, and mulch as firebreaks
Opt for dense mulches, such as composted woodchips, over shredded bark
Install drip systems or micro sprinklers to moisten mulched areas ahead of anticipated wildfires
On a flat slope, trees should stand at least 10 feet apart, while bushes should have at least 2x their height between them
Fires can spread more easily along slopes, so leave more space between trees and shrubs on steeper slopes
Only build decks out of ignition-resistant or non-combustible materials
Don’t plant trees below electrical lines
Maintaining a Fire Resistant Yard
Clear all dead plants, weeds, leaves, and branches from within 30 feet of your house
Regularly mow your lawn to no more than 4” tall
Keep your rain gutters clear of debris
Trim any flammable plants, especially ones near windows and decks
Remove any branches that hang over your roof or near your chimney
Move wood piles more than 30 feet from your house
Trim any tree branches that are less than 6 feet from the ground
If you have trees growing over bushes, multiply the height of each bush by 3 then trim the branches that grow under that threshold
Keep a garden hose ready at each spigot
Make sure that your address can be easily seen by firefighters
Install Fire Resistant Plants
Including fire-resistant plants in your landscape can help stop the spread of fire to more vulnerable parts of your yard. Check with your local nursery or landscaper to select native species for your area.

Fire Resistant Garden

Fire Resistant Shrubs
Hedging Roses
Honeysuckle
Currant
Heather
Raspberry
Rose
Sumac
Shrub Apples
Fire Resistant Trees
Hardwood
Maple
Poplar
Cherry
Black Oak
River Birch
Crabapple
Other Fire Resistant Plants & Flowers
Rockrose
Ice Plant
Aloe Vera
French Lavender
Red Monkey Flower
California Fuchsia
Sage
Lilac
Coreopsis
Coneflower
Fescue
Poppy
Wooly thyme
Avoid Highly Flammable Plants
No plant is completely fireproof, but some are much more flammable than others. Avoid highly flammable plants in general, and be sure not to plant any near flammable structures.

Highly Flammable Shrubs
Chamise/Greasewood
Cypress Shrubs
Evergreen Huckleberry
French Broom
Manzanita
Rosemary
Highly Flammable Trees
Pine
Fir
Conifer
Juniper
Cypress Trees
Eucalyptus
Acacia
Hemlock
Spruce
Highly Flammable Plants
Algerian Ivy
Bamboo
Pampas grass

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Jorge CortezContractor and Owner

California Landscape Licensed Contractor. Having grown up right here in Santa Barbara, Jorge Cortez graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in 2007 and went on to join the United States Marine Corps. After completing a tour in Afghanistan and receiving an honorable discharge, Cortez continued his education at Santa Barbara City College. Today, with over fifteen years of experience in landscape maintenance, he combines his passion for the land with his business acumen as owner of SB Evolution Landscape.

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