Purposefully Planting to Protect Property
Fire Wise Gardens
Montana City, Montana
Written & Photography by Amy Grisak
A couple of years ago, a grass fire, sparked by a chain hitting the roadway, ripped across the dry field and within minutes, burned nearly a mile, ultimately reaching the shop at my son’s workplace. The flames were quickly extinguished, but it was a wake-up call. A structure-threatening fire can occur at any time, especially during our hot, dry summers.
Landscape planning around homes and outbuildings can serve as the first line of defense in protecting property, and it can be both beautiful and functional. While the idea of landscape design is daunting, a great resource is the FireWise demonstration garden, outside of Helena, at the Montana City Volunteer Fire Station #1, where the Tri-County (Lewis & Clark, Broadwater & Jefferson) Firesafe Working Group (TCFSWG) shows us beautiful and functional ways to protect our homes.
The best safety zone for a home is to have the fire on the ground when it reaches a structure. If it’s in trees, it can throw hot embers, making it more difficult to save structures and less safe for those fighting the fire.
To demonstrate various fire wise garden designs, the demonstration features 150 different plant species planted strategically to provide the best protection. Effective fire mitigation around the home requires more than just rock and perhaps a few sedums to break up the monotony. While all plants will burn; the key is choosing plants with higher moisture levels or increased saponin components, which act as a natural fire retardant, along with lower resin levels.
The fire experts at the Fire Wise garden select plant varieties for their fire-resistant qualities, as well as their ability to thrive in the Montana climate. When deciding on potential species, the TCFWG seeks plants that won’t burn as quickly and are drought resistant. Low-growing varieties are also desirable to reduce fuel load.
Visual appeal is achieved with flowers that provide blooms that last nearly all season, and are not on the top of the menu for deer
One flower at the Fire Wise Garden is an example of spacing plants farther apart, with very few touching one another, which reduces potential fuel sources near a home. In this bed, landscape fabric used to suppress weeds and pea gravel as a non-flammable mulch.
Even with the fire considerations, the garden is a riot of color and is teeming with activity, buzzing with bees and butterflies. Brilliant red and hot pink yarrows contrast with the fuchsia-colored penstemon and bright yellow potentilla shrubs.
The second garden does not use weed fabric, and the plants are closer together. While this style is typically more attractive to gardeners, the goal is finding a balance between the visual appeal and fire mitigation. Some of the most notable plants in this grouping include blue flax and the impressively huge Canterbury bells.
Plants used at the Fire Wise Demonstration Garden:
Aster
Yarrow
Penstemon
Liatris
Coral Bells
Kinnikinnick
Bee Balm
Lupine
Veronica
Coreopsis
Phlox
Columbine
Soapwort
Painted Daisy
Barberry
Prunella
Ajuga
Phlox
Lungwort
The first two beds, lush and filled with blooms, receive just five minutes of watering via drip irrigation per day under the landscape fabric. This is possible because the plants chosen require less water and have been planted to utilize the moisture efficiently.
The third group of gardens features plants, including silver mound and ice plant, that require little to no water. There are also crevice gardens, which feature rock beds with a planting medium composed of equal parts of pea gravel, sand, and compost or soil. Native plants thrive in these crevices, once their roots find purchase in this mix deep below the rocks.
Along the perimeter of the gardens, fire-resistant shrubs, many of which are within a protective cage to avoid over-pruning by the resident deer. Shrub roses burst with color, mock orange perfumes the area with its sweet fragrance, and the lilac tree displays bloom long into early summer.
These shrubs offer better alternatives to replace those with higher resin levels, such as junipers and mugo pines, which grow well but burn quickly.
For the lawn area, TCFSWG recommends a short fescue grass that grows well with just ten minutes of watering per day. It can be mowed occasionally for a more even lawn-like appearance, although it is attractive as it is naturally.
The group also offers recommendations for the entire property, including removing standing dead trees, thinning stands, and pruning bottom branches up to 15 feet high to eliminate ladder fuels.
Trees aren’t the only fire danger. When the fire burned across the grass field, at my son’s work, it reached tall grass at the back of the shop that ignited the wood siding. To halt a rapid progression like this, keeping the cured grasses and watering the area within 30 feet of any structure will create a defensible space.
Rain gutters should be kept clean, as an errant spark can ignite dried materials immediately. Rake leaf litter or pine needles in your landscape, rake them down to a depth of three inches or less to reduce the amount of burnable materials.
For further information, visit the FireWise Demonstration Garden Kiosk
Montana City Fire Station
1196 S Hwy 282
Montana City, MT 59634
