With a “new abnormal” of bigger, badder wildfires, California homeowners are facing a paradigm shift in landscaping.
As much as you might crave an English cottage look, with vines framing your porch, or stately groupings of evergreens and palms circling your home, when it comes to fire prevention, your first priority must be removing those plants and any other shaggy, combustible vegetation that serves as easy fuel for wind-borne embers.
“Research shows that, 90 percent of the time, homes are ignited by embers, not a wall of flames,” said Jamie Roice-Gomes, manager of the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Living With Fire Program.
The idea is to create an airy, open defensible space around your home, and plant nothing that touches the structure or looms above it, said Robert Walton, assistant forester for the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Fuel Modification Unit.
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