House and Home
Page 40
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a gardener’s approach. For those of you who haven’t heard, the area I live in Javea
and Benitachell suffered from massive fires in early September
destroying much, from local flora and fauna to many houses, gardens and property in general. The fires destroyed so much of the beautiful area we live in. My sympathy goes out to those who have been affected by these terrible events.
After witnessing terrible fires when I first moved to Spain I often read while learning more about Spanish plants, how certain plants can act as a fire retardant. I would dare to say that unfortunately when seeing the destruction caused it is more than apparent that not a lot can stop fire when it is like this was. Therefore I am going to give the only knowledge I know I can to firstly help reduce the risk of fire to your garden, and secondly for those affected how to help breathe new life back into their gardens. Fire Prevention. We all know that when there are large fires, firemen often create what is called a fire break, often in forested areas, road ways are created to help with this also. The main reason for this is to create a barrier of none burnable material. This part is key, the fact that there is so much material that can be burned is a problem. What you can do in your own garden is to make sure there is a minimum of dry and dead shoots on plants shrubs and especially trees. Make sure trees, especially pines, are regularly pruned to clear the trunks of old dead branches and the canopy is also controlled. Unfortunately cypress hedging only grows out and once dead inside this will not grow back, so trimming has to be done properly to control its size and in turn reduce greatly the amount of dry and very combustable material that lies within.
Fire,
Female Focus
Many of the worst burned areas were empty plots in urbanised areas that haven’t been built on. I have recently (before the fires) spoken with customers who were having problems with untidy empty plots. Normally if this becomes too much of a problem, speak with your townhall as you may be able to get contact details of the land owner. In the worst case scenario you can often arrange for the townhall to contact the land owners and take things to a legal level as they have a duty to keep the land in order. Since the fires I have spoken with many people who have had plants burned in the garden. Basically if it is a charred stick then it is more than likely dead, but there may be many plants that look dead but will be fine. The easiest way to check is scrape the plant and see if it is still green, this is the quickest way to see if the plant is still drawing sap.
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