Many gardening chores are on hold during these winter months, so it is a good time to think about your landscaping and ensure that you have adequate defensible space around your home for fire safety.

Since 2005, state law requires that defensible space around homes and structures be increased from 30 feet to 100 feet. Proper clearance to 100 feet will dramatically increase the chance of your house surviving a wildfire and provide a protected area for firefighters. The areas around your home are divided into two zones. The space within 30 feet of your home is the "home defense zone." The "reduced fuel zone" lies beyond the home defense zone and extends out at least 100 feet from your house or to your property line.

Home defense zone

All flammable vegetation in this area should be removed. However, that doesn't mean you need to look at bare dirt. There are a number of attractive fire-resistant plants available and many are drought-tolerant. Single specimens of trees or shrubs may be retained if they are well spaced and well pruned, and all plantings beneath the plant are removed.

Even though some plants are identified as fire resistant, all plants can burn. Plants that maintain high moisture content, are low-growing, open structured and less resinous, are safer choices. In addition, how your plants are maintained and where they are placed are as important as the species of plants selected. They should be properly irrigated and pruned and any debris cleaned up.

Some plant suggestions for the home defense zone are low-growing, irrigated ground covers such as carpet bugle, thyme, or yarrow, mixed with gravel or stepping-stone footpaths. Shorter plants (less than 2 feet) are safer than taller ones. Some low growing perennials to consider for this area include iris, salvia and coreopsis.

Reduced fuel zone

This zone extends out at least an additional 70 feet from your home. Trees and brush should be thinned in this area. If the ground slope is less than 20 percent, the spacing between trees should be 10 feet between the tips of their limbs. On steeper slopes, more spacing is needed. If trees are over 18 feet tall, prune lower branches up to a height of 6 to 15 feet to reduce the possibility of surface fires spreading to the crowns. However, don't stress the tree by removing more than one-third of its live limbs.

If you need to remove some native trees in this area, be aware that the bark of many of our local natives such as interior live oak, canyon live oak and firs, are more sensitive to fire than others. You might choose to save natives with bark less sensitive to fire which include black oak, Ponderosa pine, sugar pine and incense cedar, among others, although they are not fire-resistant. If you want to reduce the number of native trees and replace them with more fire resistant trees, western redbud, flowering dogwood and California sycamore are good options.

Shrubs can be planted in the reduced fuel zone either individually or in small clumps. The recommended spacing between shrubs is at least two times the height of the shrub, but this distance should be increased if planting on a slope. Good shrubs for this area are ceanothus, toyon and rock rose.

A list of fire-resistant plant recommendations for the foothills is available through the Amador County Master Gardeners. They can be contacted by phone at 223-6838, or e-mail at mgamador@ucdavis.edu.

Sue Harrington is a Master Gardener living near Pine Grove.