Wildfire can be a risk anytime in Florida, but dry periods make them even more likely especially in wooded or rural areas. It's not hard to make your landscape less vulnerable though. First, create a defensible space. That's a special area between the natural areas and your home. It breaks up the continuity of plants and gives the structure a better chance of having less damage. The defensible space should extend out at least 30 feet from your home and fill the area with low flammability or firewise plants.
Lightweight fuels, such as leaves, needles, and small branches ignite and burn easily. Plants with thick, succulent leaves like cacti, aloe and century plants usually maintain high leaf moisture and take longer to ignite making them good firewise selections in defensible spaces. Shrubs like azalea, hydrangea, oleander, agave, beautyberry, coontie, camellia, and even oakleaf hydrangea are good selections. The broad fronds of palms tend to have relatively high flammability.
Keep taller trees away from the home and use short shrubs for foundation plantings. Groups of plants can be separated by stone, gravel, a healthy lawn but shrubs, vines, and small trees should have the lower branches pruned since most wildfires spread horizon tonally along the ground or a few feet above. These materials can act as fire ladders when they vine up into the trees and carry flames from the ground to treetops - doing damage to the trees and any structures over which they hang.
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