Bay OK FireWise Gardens

We can support you to create a Bay OK FireWise garden. Whether you are starting from scratch or re-designing an existing garden, we can help!

Our Bay OK principles can be adapted and applied to making your property safe in the event of a bushfire.

10 FireWise tips and Tricks, by The Forever Project 

1. Waterwise Gardens are FireWise Gardens

The use of wetting agents and rough coarse rock mulch will make sure your plants get all the water that is needed. Having well ‘hydrated’ plants means that the plants are less likely to burn.

2. Fine Fuels are Deadly Fuels

It is the stuff like dry leaves, small twigs and tall dead grass that are by far the most flammable and dangerous, so don’t let them build up.

3. Get Rid of Ladders

Fire is pretty lazy! If it has an easy tangle of branches to get into the tree canopy it becomes very dangerous. So, remember to remove your lower branches and keep them at least 2m back from your roof and walls.

4. Embers Really do Attack

Remember these nasty little orange sparks only need a gap of 3mm wide to get in and potentially destroy your home. So remember – plug those gaps!

5. Ghastly Gutters

If you can just stop leaves from filling your gutters you will do a huge amount to make your home more ‘FireWise’

6. Design for Safety

Did you know a carefully designed and managed ‘FireWise’ garden can have a significant impact on making your home safer and more ‘FireWise’.

7. Ratings are Under-rated

Look for products that have the Australian Standard AS 3959-2018, Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas. These are products proven to be the most FireWise for your home.

8. The Low Down on Fuels

Remember that dry ‘standing’ (upright) fuels are much more dangerous than flattened fuels. So don’t forget to mow, slash, mulch and or remove these ‘fuels’ to be ‘FireWise’ in your garden.

9. Rock On!

Did you know that stone, rocks and gravels (preferably recycled) are much safer mulch options against ember attack in high fire risk areas. So rock on for a ‘FireWise’ garden.

10. Keep Your Distance

Gaps between plants and gaps between the ground and the lowest foliage will help stop the spread of any bushfire near your home.