defensive landscape further prepares a well-hardened home
A frequent Native Plant Garden Tour favorite, we’ve evolved this garden several times throughout our nearly three decades serving the homeowners. With each evolution, we incorporate more fire defensive, wildlife and slope supporting native foliage. Recently featured in Sunset Magazine, this property illustrates effective home hardening and a treeful strategy for fire defense.
It’s fire-defensive to invert the typical landscape…
Sunset Magazine 2024
place large ember-catching trees and shrubs at a distance from the house, and
lower foliage as you near the home. This makes it easier for you to evacuate
and provides more defensible space for firefighters to safely defend your home.
Project Snapshot
Effective wildfire preparation will look different for each property and homeowner. Cassy Aoyagi and Oscar Ortega have offered in-depth tours of the fire preparations on this property.
As those in high fire severity zones prioritize their wildfire preparation strategies, we recommend we think home first. The owners of this Mandeville Canyon home did just that – they directly addressed the home’s vulnerabilities before investing in our latest evolution of the garden.
From there, we addressed the human-made materials in the space nearest the home and looked for ways to “nudge” fire defensive behaviors, like storing umbrellas, cushions and other materials, when they are not in active use.
With Univision 34, Oscar Ortega describes the impact ongoing, zero-emissions landscaping practices and everyday homeowner behaviors have on fire safety.
Cassy touches on landscape design strategies that reference a home’s community position, strengths and vulnerabilities to create defensible space.
While the property’s coastal canyon location maintains cooler temperatures and sees more precipitation than those in LA’s eastern foothills, we still prioritized foliage known for resisting high, dry heat and retaining slopes. For example, the garden’s latest evolution incorporated Dwarf Coyote Bush, Manzanita, and Island Snapdragon.
See this garden’s evolution in the full gallery in Houzz, where you can save your favorite ideas. Learn about more fire defensive landscaping strategies in our Resources section.
Plant Palettes
Everyone wants to know our plant palette for wildfire preparation. We’re happy to share! We believe our hyper-local native foliage is best adapted to resist high heat, drought, and even fire. That said, plant choice is a small part of the picture. No plant is fire proof, and at some point, all foliage will ignite. Maintenance practices, fire informed behaviors, landscape design strategies beyond plant choice, and home hardening play more significant roles in fire mitigation.
