Fire Proof Gardens?

Sorry to everyone who thought I was going to speak about street trees throughout my blog. It has taken a detour for the time being. So I’m back on the bushfire bandwagon.

Out the window on my way up the Kinglake, this was just out of Whittlesea.

The other day we had a lecture on plant adaptations and part of this was devoted to fire and how plants respond and recover. It got me thinking…could there be garden design methods used in areas prone to bushfires that could reduce the impact?

Pretty certain this is the turn off at Kinglake West.

 As I went from house to house in Kinglake I noticed some things that to me seemed obvious. One house in particular, had a hose (plastic) attached to a tap on the other side of the driveway…the fire came from that angle burnt and melted the hose cutting off the water supply to the roof sprinklers before the fire had even hit the house. Other things I notices were all the tanks that were plastic melted and the tanks that were tin got so hot the water boiled. The generators were useless due to the amount of smoke.

A good friend of mine was in a house in Kinglake West on that day (which caught fire but they managed to save most of the house). She told me the fire seemed to never touch the ground; it was in the trees and the air. I think we can prepare the ground around the house only so much but I think we need to look at plant around us. Are they making the house more fire prone?

                                                             The first place we searched.

So there are some pretty obvious (or what I think are obvious) things to do like positioning of tanks and other water supplies, hose material and structures of the property. Mulch, as we know helps retain water in the soil but it’s not recommended by the CFA and increase the risk.

I’m thinking that just as there are plants that burn quickly, intensely or explosively, are there plants that don’t burn or burn is such a way that they help limit the spread of a fire? Can a garden completely loaded with watered plants have an impact on a fire? Just as a trait of eucalypts is to explode I would be interested to see if any plants react differently to fire. Can a 'Fire Proof Garden' be created?

Maybe I’m just dreaming that a garden could be created to lower the risk of fires. And maybe not but I’d be keen to check it out. We live in a country that will always have bushfires so it’s something to think about…

Please note that these pictures do not even begin to describe what this place was really like. These are original pictures.