Create a fire-wise garden

Nelson man Guy Mollett last week credited fire-wise garden design as one of the factors that saved his Redwood Valley home from a massive forest fire raging across the region.

Mollett designed his garden after attending a demonstration by the Appleby Rural Fire Brigade on how to protect a property from fire, and had included a fire break of flax along the exposed side of the property.

University of Auckland scientist Professor George Perry, who with Lincoln University’s Dr Sarah Wyse and Dr Tim Curran, has researched the flammability of common New Zealand plants, says what you plant on your property can help reduce the risk of losing your home in the event of fire.

Based on their research, Perry, Wyse and Curran put together a brochure, available from Fire and Emergency New Zealand, on how to design a fire-wise garden.

The first goal for homeowners in rural areas or on the edges of urban areas who might be at risk of fire was to create a buffer zone that extended about 10m around the house. This is sometimes called priority zone one by landscapers who specialise in fire-safe garden design.

The aim is to create a clear space around your home which will reduce the intensity of the fire as it approaches, and which also serves to create a space from which firefighters can operate to defend your house.

In this space directly around the house, include only low-growing nonwoody plants that stay green at the time of year when the risk of fires is high. This might include lawn, ground covers, bulbs or perennial flowers.

Ideally remove high-risk vegetation from this zone, such as scrub vegetation, long grass, dried leaves and twigs or any plants which Fire and Emergency New Zealand class as highly or moderately flammable.

Finally keep your firewood pile – and also any stacked building material or other pile of highly combustible material you happen to have lying around – outside of priority zone one and at least 10m from your home.

Firescapers also recommend you create a second zone – usually called priority zone two – that’s about 30m around your home.

In this zone your aim is to create an environment that reduces the intensity of the fire as it approaches.

You can do this by removing any dead or dying trees and keeping the trees you do have pruned, removing any branches within 2m of the ground or that are near power lines.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand maintains a list of plant species rated according to how flammable they are.

GUY MOLLETT Guy Mollett photographed his Redwood Valley home as he evacuated during the forest fire on Tuesday night. He credits fire-wise garden design - and the work of the firefighters with saving his home.