Welcome to the "Gardening with Fire" website. This has been designed to compliment the CD-ROM, "Gardening with Fire", the essential self- help manual for Home and Garden design in fire-prone areas. With chapters including:-

• The ecology of a fire zone- the role of general climate, specific seasonal weather patterns, vegetation species, plus the natural and man-made causes of fire. This chapter also deals with factors that spread and intensify fires.

• Design elements for a safer home, including sections on your roof, doors and windows, and advice on construction materials.

• The area surrounding your home- lawns, pools, trees and your home, smoking outdoors, barbecues, irrrigation, fuel and machinery, children and fire, as well as a list of suitable low fuel plants for growing near to your home.

• Designing a fire concious garden, which includes sections on firebreaks, buffer zones, wild areas, shelterbelts, as well as a study of suitable fire retardant plants for your garden- and a list of plants to avoid and why.

• Other low fuel areas within the garden, and how to turn these into attractive features.

• Essential information about evacuation, what to do when leaving your home, and if the worst comes to the worst, emergency first aid to deal with burns of varying severity.

 And finally, dealing with the aftermath of a fire

 "Gardening with Fire" is fully illustrated throughout, using my own photographs, that dramatically show the effects of the fires in our area that led to the loss of our home and garden- and acted as my inspiration to try to prevent others from suffering the same loss. For this reason, all copies sold @ only € 5 each, include a donation to our local Volunteer Fire Sevice, the Bombeiros Voluntarios de Aljezur.

  Although written from Portugal, where I am based, it contains much information of value to any region with a regular fire season- from Alaska to Australia! Indeed, many parts of the world have what is known as a Mediterraneoid climate, characterised by relatively warm, wet winters and hot, dry summers. This includes not only the Mediterranean basin itself, but also parts of Australia, South Africa, California and Chile. Most of the plants listed both in "Gardening with Fire", and in the database I am currently working on, have been selected to grow in these regions. Many of these plants have been selected also for their range of tolerances, not only to fire and extreme heat, but also to frost and cold periods. This means that they should grow in a wide variety of different garden situations. However, I would welcome any additional information on any plants, from anywhere, that survive fires, especially those that may have fire-retarding characteristics- ie: they are more difficult to ignite and slower to burn during fires.

Please visit the "Gardening with Fire" database of Fire Retardant Plants

  If you have any relevant information, anecdotes, questions or answers that you would like to add, please E-mail
cath@gardeningwithfire.cjb.net
and I will post it on the "Gardening with Fire" Forum. This is your chance to have your say on any topics related to living in fire affected zones, so please use it!

THINK POSITIVE+ACT POSITIVE