This home was landscaped exclusively with native plants, and is Zone-0 compliant with the exception of a few small details involved in an upcoming project. In person, the garden looks wild and lovely, with beautiful vistas in several directions. The property is also largely Zone-1-compliant.
When the homeowners purchased the home, there was only privet and ivy growing in the yard. The homeowners do their own landscaping and gardening—they created the new landscape over the past 8 years, and have progressively retrofitted it to comply with Zone 0. To create Zone 0, plants and some mature shrubs near the house had to be removed.
Beautiful rock garden in front. Between the front garden and the stucco wall of the facade is a 5 foot border of pea gravel.
The right side of the house is sided with concrete, with a side border on the edge of the front yard that juts in front of the side alley, which is just concrete. The left side of the house, not pictured here, is sided with pea gravel.
Alongside the back of the house is a section of pea gravel faced by a profusion of native plants and shrubs cascading over rocks.
Looking towards the back door, from the back of the yard.
Vista towards the back patio
The Garden is also largely Zone 1 compliant, partitioned by large pea gravel alleys.
Vista to the back, towards the nursery
Detail: potted plants on the back redwood deck (there are plans to hardscape the deck soon).
Detail: stone bench on the left side of the house, on top of pea gravel
Detail: all metal hoses around the house
Please note: the article will be updated will final pictures of the metal gates when they are in place.
Cost of wildfire mitigation
The removals required in Zone 0 (and Zone 1) were limited and all done by the owners. The most expensive part of the retrofit was a set two custom steel gates: one with double doors and a total span of 8 feet, and another regular-sized one, for a total of $9,000 (there are off-the-shelf metal gates from much less). The other expenses were minor (pea gravel, a stone bench, metal hoses, and a limited amount of stone edging, all DIY). We estimate the total cost of pea gravel at $1350 with delivery. The stone bench cost $450 at Giannini Gardens. The total for Zone 0 and Zone 1 probably amounts to $11,000 including the fully custom gates.