I've been trying to find the right words since the fires. Like so many of you, I've watched our community reel from what came through Spokane County — hundreds of homes destroyed, thousands of neighbors displaced, whole streets reduced to chimneys and ash. If you're reading this from a hotel room, a relative's spare bedroom, or a house you're just grateful is still standing, please know my heart is with you.
As an educator, my first instinct is to learn, and as a gardener, I turn to plants. And in the quiet after a disaster like this, I keep coming back to a question: can the way we garden actually help protect my home? The answer is yes — more than most people realize. So I want to offer what I can, which is what I know about building landscapes that are both water-wise and fire-wise.
These two goals aren't opposites
We're getting increasingly comfortable talking about water-wise gardening — landscapes that thrive on less water. These fires have made it painfully clear that we need to think about fire, too. The good news is that these two goals aren't at odds. Done thoughtfully, a water-wise garden and a fire-resilient garden are largely the same garden. But thoughtfully is the key word, and there are some important nuances I don't want you to miss.
The most important lesson: it's the embers
Often, when wildfires destroy homes, it isn't a wall of flame that gets the house, it's embers. Wind can carry burning embers half a mile ahead of a fire, where they land in gutters full of pine needles, in bark mulch piled against the siding, on doormats and wooden furniture, and dry plants tucked right up against the house. That's how home-after-home gets ignited, sometimes well before the fire itself has arrived.
This means that the single most valuable thing you can do happens in the first five feet around your home — what fire experts call the "home ignition zone." In that zone, the goal is simple: give embers nothing to catch on.
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Pull bark and wood mulch away from the foundation and replace it with gravel or rock right against the house.
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Keep this zone clear of dead leaves, dry plants, and debris.
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Clean pine needles out of your gutters and off your roof, especially heading into fire season (ahem, note to my husband…).
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Move anything flammable — firewood, propane tanks, wooden planters — away from the walls.
None of this requires a landscaper or a big budget. It's the highest-impact, lowest-cost work you can do, and it's where I'd start.
Widening the circle: defensible space
Beyond that first five feet, firefighters talk about "defensible space" in widening rings around the home. From roughly 5 to 30 feet out, the rule of thumb is lean, clean, and green: well-spaced plants, kept healthy and cleared of dead material, so there's no continuous path of fuel leading to the house. Farther out still, you're thinning and breaking up vegetation so a fire can't gather momentum as it approaches.
You don't need a moonscape. You need to interrupt the fire's fuel — think of leaving gaps in a line of dominoes so the fall can't carry all the way to your door.
The part I most want you to hear: drought-tolerant is not the same as fire-safe
Some of our toughest, most water-thrifty plants are actually among the most flammable. Junipers, arborvitae, sagebrush, and ornamental grasses left dry and dormant are essentially kindling — junipers especially, so full of volatile oils that firefighters sometimes call them "gasoline plants." I've seen people line the foundation of a house with junipers for an easy low-water planting, not realizing they've laid a fuse right where it can do the most harm.
Fire-resistant plants tend to share a few traits: high moisture content in their leaves, low resin or oil, and not much dead, papery material. Many succulents fit beautifully — stonecrop and other sedums are drought-tolerant and fire-resistant, which makes them a wonderful overlap plant. Well-hydrated perennials like yarrow, penstemon, and coneflower, deciduous shrubs that hold moisture in their leaves, and low green groundcovers all tend to resist ignition far better than a dry conifer. The goal is to choose plants that are both suited to our dry summers and slow to burn — and then to place and space them well.
Where water-wise and fire-wise beautifully overlap
Once you see it, the alignment between these two approaches is everywhere. Rock and gravel mulch saves water and doesn't burn. Trading thirsty lawn for well-spaced native plantings cuts your water use while breaking up the continuous fuel a fire loves. And healthy, adequately watered plants resist fire far better than stressed, dried-out ones — which is exactly what native and drought-tolerant plants give you, staying green and vigorous on a fraction of the water. Water-wise never meant bone-dry. It means the right plants, staying healthy, with less.
Maintenance matters more than any plant list
Sometimes, how you tend a garden matters more than what you plant in it. The most fire-resistant plant in the world becomes fuel the moment it fills up with dead stems and dry leaves. A fire-wise garden isn't a one-time installation — it's the ongoing habit of clearing dead material, keeping plants healthy, and minding that critical zone close to your home. The same care that keeps a water-wise garden beautiful is the care that keeps it safe.
When you're ready, I'm here
For some of you, "replanting" isn't a someday project — it's the bare ground you're standing on right now, looking at a yard you have to rebuild from nothing. If that's you, I am so sorry, and I'm here. When you're ready — no rush, no pressure — I'd be honored to help you think through a landscape that's beautiful, water-wise, and far more resilient to the summers we're facing. Sometimes rebuilding is also a chance to build back wiser.
For now, take care of yourselves and each other. This takes time, and the plants can wait. We'll grow it back together.