FIREWISE YOU CAN USE

15 ::Firescaping your property

The serious fires experienced in the summer (January 2000) in the Western Cape have alerted gardeners to the need to avoid plants that burn easily and to 'firescape' their gardens.

Here are some points to consider in your planning.

Assess the vulnerability of your property

• Are there forests or thickets of invasive alien vegetation on or close to your property? These have high fuel loads and greatly increase the intensity of fires.

• Is it subject to strong south-easterly winds?

• Is it at the top of a slope? Fire naturally moves up a slope, drying everything out ahead of it and thus burns more vigorously higher up than lower down.

Clear invading aliens on and near your property

Cut down or herbicide invasive alien trees and shrubs, and remove them from the site to avoid piles of dead material lying around.

There is no such thing as a fire resistant plant!

All plants will eventually burn if a fire is hot enough, so what can be done is to place plants according to how long each kind is able to resist burning.

Agapanthus Africanus

Re-vegetating an area devastated by fire

Garden in zones!

Plan your garden with a fire resistant buffer zone on the periphery, a medium resistant ring within that and an approximately 3 m wide zone of low resistant planting around the house.

A. The buffer zone

Drosanthemum Speciosum

This area should be the furthest away from the house on the periphery of the property. Plant low growing groundcovers with fleshy leaves that have a high resistance to fire like vygies, (Lampranthus, Malephora, Drosanthemum, Delosperma and Carpobrotus), Gazania, Arctotis, Cliffortia ferruginea and Aloe brevifolia.

These need to be watered at least once a week to retain their high fire-resistant quality. Suitable bulbs could include Tulbaghia violacea, Agapanthus and Watsonia. If a hedge is needed, use plants that re-sprout and do not have large quantities of dead material accumulating in the plant such as happens with proteas.

Good hedge plants include Rhus crenata, R. glauca and R. lucida, all of which will re-sprout if burnt, as will Tarchonanthus camphoratus. Chrysanthemoides monilifera will burn more slowly because of its succulent-like leaves.

B. Medium resistance zone

This should be the area between the peripheral buffer zone and the inner band around the house. It is possible to plant a fynbos garden here, but remember to mix tall and short shrubs to prevent a large dense thicket developing that could support a very hot fire.

To prevent mud slides after a fire and to ensure a speedy recovery, it is important to plant sprouters here. These plants have an underground ligno-tuber or rootstock that re-sprouts if burnt to the ground and could include Leucadendron salignum, Chondropetalum tectorum, Erica spp, Maytenus oleoides, Brachylaena discolor, Salvia spp, Pelargonium cucullatum, Protea cynaroides, Felicia echinata, Olea europaea subsp. africana 'Wild olive', Kiggelaria africanaI 'Wild peach', and Rhus lucida. Some plants also have corky bark that will protect them if a fire is mild. These will start budding soon after a fire. They include Leucospermum conocarpodendron, Protea nitida 'Waboom', Mimetes cucullatus and Aloe plicatilis.

Forest trees have a natural resistance to fire and do not burn easily, including Rapanaea melanophloeos 'Cape Beach', Brabejum stellatifolium, Cunonia capensis (Rooiels), Ilex mitis, Maurocenia frangularia, Halleria lucida 'Tree Fuchsia' and Canthium mundianum. These include the many different species of Protea, Erica, Ursinia, Leucadendron, Phylica, Helichrysum, Metalasia, Roella, Selago, Agathosma as well as Pelargonium cordifolium and Felicia aethiopica.

C. The low resistance zone around the house

Erica post fire

This area must be kept free of large shrubs. It should contain low growing plants and groundcovers, interspersed with gravel or lawn. No climbers or trellises should be attached to the walls of the house in a high-risk fire area as these act as 'ladders' for the fire. Groundcovers for sunny areas include Cliffortia ferruginea, Otholobium decumbens, Dymondia margaretae, Gazania, Helichrysum argyrophyllum, Hermannia saccifera, Cotula lineariloba, Agathosma ovata 'Kluitjies kraal' and vygies. For shady areas, grow Plectranthus verticillatus, P. neochilus (which can also grow in the sun), and P. ciliatus 'Drege'.

Small shrubs can be planted alone with groundcovers round them. These could include Agathosma serpyllacea, Phylica ericoides, Felicia, Carissa macrocarpa, Cotyledon orbiculata, Scabiosa and Athanasia dentata.

Acknowledgements

Anthony Hitchcock, Dave McDonald and Wendy Madsen are thanked for their help. For more information, read Table Mountain A Natural History by Anton Pauw and Steven Johnson.

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