Ecological Garden Design - Part 1

By Felicia Fredd
​Xtreme Design SW

Official 'firewise' landscape recommendations are truly becoming something to take more urgent action on. From simply removing flammable debris piles and putting safe space between material hazards, to reorganizing relationships between home, landscape, and garden elements, sources everywhere emphasize that areas immediately surrounding building structures are a significant factor in losses to wildfire.

Wonderful, there are quite a few things we can do to reduce the odds of the unthinkable; however, the most effective guidelines cut a pretty grim image: a hellscape of homes nearly devoid of sheltering plant material and overhangs (especially of wooden material) 30'-50' feet in all directions. By default, such measures also necessitate foregoing basic passive resource conservation strategies via sheltering landscape vegetation, as well as environmentally friendly 'messy' maintenance practices such as allowing organic debris to accumulate.

"During a wildfire, often it is “firebrands”, small pieces of burning vegetation and debris that floats into the air, that start a home on fire. Our research shows that if the firebrands land in dead vegetation, whether it’s under the deck or in the eave troughs, they often ignite the house." https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/firewise_landscaping_can_save_homes_from_wildfire

I am certainly not doubting the statistical truth of firewise principles, but I am a little overwhelmed by their potential combined ecological impacts, which is also no joke. Right now, ecologists are sending a very strong message that private garden and landscape spaces are critically important in preventing further species decline. What a brain crunch. How is this supposed to work - particularly with regard to outdoor living spaces in desert environments such as ours? What about resource conservation through mitigating heat gain/loss, reducing wind exposure, soil conservation, sequestered carbon? What about wildlife? Prostrate, succulent plants in exposed heat islands (as recommended) require a lot more water than layered plant communities, and obviously don't create precious sheltered space for much of anything, including people. How can we protect ourselves from devastating loss without reinforcing the very sterility that has helped bring us to this place?

What we have is a design challenge. We’re still gardening like Victorians, in the desert, and that should have already changed based on environmental science, but environmental design (including gardens and landscape) is particularly resistant to change. We do what we know, and we are deeply attached to what we know, and that is actually one very sweet thing about our relationship to landscape, but times are now clearly demanding something else.

All things considered, it looks to me like all around 'smarter', safer, design will indeed come down to much more sparing, but hopefully also much more creative and multipurpose spatial design that supports human needs and better 'frames', shelters, and structures less preferred but more environmentally friendly native plants. We simply do not have models for garden/landscape that synthesize all of these interests and important details yet.

I began a project, Xtreme Design/SW, with the intention of presenting a collection of perspectives and ideas about adaptive design for home landscape and garden spaces, but I'm really just getting started. I've been focused on familiarizing myself with specific principles of ecological design, and all I can say right now is that they run almost completely counter to mitigating fire risks. So maybe I can say just this: go easy on your 'keystone' plants, to whatever extent possible, if you are undertaking firewise brush clearing in wildland interface zones. For our ecoregion, these are mostly all the plants we love to dislike up close: chamisa, fourwing saltbush, winterfat, snakeweed, but would also include wild plum, coyote willow, cottonwood, ash, etc. Keystone plants are "the most productive plants that support the most species." - Doug Tallamy, https://homegrownnationalpark.org/keystone-trees-and-shrubs/

"Keystone plants are native plants critical to the food web and necessary for many wildlife species to complete their life cycle. Without keystone plants in the landscape, butterflies, native bees, and birds will not thrive. 96% of our terrestrial birds rely on insects supported by keystone plants.". https://www.nwf.org/Native-Plant-Habitats/Plant-Native/Why-Native/Keystone-Plants-by-Ecoregio