Put These Safety Measures in Place Now to Keep Your Home and Garden Protected

Summer gardening in Tasmania can be a risky endeavour, with scorching days and dry conditions. During a bushfire, most plants will burn under the right circumstances. Designing our gardens with fire safety in mind allows us to create safe habitats for wildlife while reducing the risk to our properties.

6 Essential Steps to Reduce Fire Risk Around Your Home

When a bushfire strikes, wind-driven embers can easily ignite nearby vegetation, debris, and even parts of your home. Taking proactive steps to fireproof your property can significantly increase its chances of surviving a wildfire. Here are six key fire safety measures every homeowner should follow:

1. Keep Grass Short and Garden Maintained
   Regularly mow lawns and trim overgrown plants. Remove dead branches, and prune trees and shrubs to reduce fuel load and improve airflow.
2. Clean Gutters Frequently
   Clear leaves, dry grasses, and debris from roof gutters. Blocked gutters can easily catch fire from falling embers during a bushfire.
3. Clear Flammable Materials Near the Home
   Keep fire-prone items such as woodpiles, bark chips, dry leaves, and mulch well away from the house. These materials can ignite quickly and spread flames to your home.
4. Relocate Flammable Items and Outdoor Furniture
   Move outdoor furniture, garden tools, fuel cans, and other flammable equipment indoors or away from the home before days of high fire danger.
5. Use Fire-Resistant Landscaping Materials
   Replace mulch close to the house with non-combustible materials such as pebbles, rocks, or gravel to create a buffer zone that resists ember attack.
6. Seal Gaps and Vents to Prevent Ember Entry
   Inspect your home for gaps under floors, around windows, doors, skylights, chimneys, and under eaves. Seal all cracks to stop embers from entering and starting spot fires inside.

Understanding Plant Flammability in Your Garden Design

Not all plants ignite or burn at the same rate — some are far more flammable than others. Many Australian native species, for instance, have evolved to rely on fire as part of their natural regeneration process, making them more prone to burning. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to cultivate native plant corridors and mixed gardens to support biodiversity and resilience.

To help you create a safer, more fire-resistant landscape, we’ve compiled a list of commonly used garden plants along with their flammability ratings. Use this guide when planning or updating your garden layout. Be especially mindful of highly flammable species, such as Poa poiformis, by planting them further apart and ensuring they are positioned at a safe distance from your home or structures.

Common Garden Plants and Their Flammability Rating

We’ve used the plant flammability guide from Sparking Conversations, Igniting Action, a Greater Hobart Bushfire Resilience Project funded through the National Emergency Management Agency – Preparing Australian Communities Grants Program.

You can access the full list of plants at the Sparking Conversations website or come visit us at the nursery to pick up a copy of the Bushfire & Garden Plants booklet.

Come in to the Nursery and talk to one of our friendly garden experts today!