Protect Against Natural Disasters Through Smart Landscaping

Changing landscaping can do more than improve your curb appeal and make your lawn more attractive. With the following tips and information, you can also be able to protect your home from the dire effects of natural disasters like the one we recently experienced here in Charleston. Fires, storms, and floods are inevitable calamities no one can specifically predict. This is why preventing it has been extremely difficult. Only those who are really committed to their prevention routines could minimize the effects of these types of natural disasters. Aside from these exhausting prevention routines, you can easily protect your home from fires, storms, and floods through smart landscaping.

Protect against fires

To help protect your home from fires, there are a couple of things you might like to change in your lawn. Set up fire defense zones – There are two zones you can create as your fire defense zones. One is a 30-foot zone where you can put flagstone, gravel and pavers to allow firefighters easy and quick access to your house in case of fire emergencies. If you want to add plants, choose shrubs like azaleas, which are low growing and have less dense foundation. The other fire defense zone is a 100-foot zone where you should always keep trees and shrubs thinned out and maintain clear wide paths that will serve as fire breaks. Regularly maintain your lawn and garden – Your basic maintenance tasks actually help in protecting your home from fires. When cleaning up your garden, keep an eye out for any debris that can serve as fuel to flames. These include dried leaves, long grass, dead plants, weeds, and dead tree branches. It’s important that you remove these fire hazards every time you clean your garden. Add fire-resistant plants – These are plants that are slower to burn like azaleas, boxwoods, hydrangeas, and burning bushes. You might also want to consider planting succulents like sedums as these have high water content and are, therefore, less flammable.

Protect against wind storms

The best and most effective way to help reduce the effects of wind storms is landscaping Charleston windbreaks. This is the use of specific trees and shrubs and planting them in strategic places to reduce the storm’s wind speed and serve as buffer against the gusts. Choose trees and shrubs that have low crowns and grows closer to the ground. These include Arizona cypress, redbud, sycamore, and Chinese elm.

Protect against flooding

Your primary focus in organizing your garden to protect against floods is to slow down the flow of water and prevent it from reaching the soils near your foundation. To achieve this, choose trees and shrubs that are considered as rain barriers because of their roots that grow deep into the ground. The best trees to consider are those that can grow more than 40 feet high as their trunks help block running water, their roots create drip lines, their big leaves can intercept rainwater, and they can quickly transpire groundwater for as much as 100 gallons per day.

Find out what you can do with your landscaping to make it your first line of defense against natural disasters. Call Porter Hayes Landscaping LLC now.

Porter Hayes Landscaping LLC Charleston, SC 29419 (843) 532-3270 http://www.porterhayeslandscaping.com/

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