This magnificently landscaped home on the Ridge is set on a double lot, with a large grove of redwoods. It is reached through a climbing concrete driveway. All outside furniture is metal. The house itself is built to Chapter 7A (post 2008) specifications, and therefore already benefits from modern building, more fire-resistant techniques. There are no fences or gates near the house. The property is defensible space compliant in Zones 0, 1 and 2 in all but a few details (small shrubs or brush under the very large redwoods).
The house facade is faced with a large concrete landing that also functions as a path.
A large concrete landing fronts the back door, and supports large flower pots positioned more than 5 feet from the walls.
The other walls of the house are lined with 5-10 ft of pea gravel and rock beds on each side, doubling as paths surrounding the home.
The gravel and rock beds are edged with 3/8" steel edging. When the soil level slopes down, the steel edging is strong enough to function as a step riser that retains the gravel.
The large redwood grove extends around a large part of the property, in Zones 1 and 2. it is largely but not 100% compliant with the continuous tree canopy rule.
Where there is no large tree canopy, the rest of the landscape is managed through fuel separation and green island Zone 1 and 2 management techniques.
The house was professionally landscaped when it was built, so there is no good cost estimate for wildfire mitigation alone. The redwood grove was obviously pre-existing and represents the largest part of the landscape. Outside of the non-redwood part of the yard, the owner feels the hardest part of the job was to take control of the ivy that was dominating the site and the hillside.