Faced with living in a high-risk bushfire area, Yallingup residents Bill and Di Mitchell decided to make the best of their situation. While researching ways to protect their home, Bill came across the idea of planting a fire-resistant garden around their 10-hectare property overlooking Smiths Beach.

No one could have predicted the result would be so successful that the garden would go on to win national awards, for its beauty as well as its function.

How the garden works

The garden, which the Mitchells call ‘Fire and Beauty’, is filled with thousands of cacti, succulents and aloes.

Because of their high water content, these plants are far less likely to catch fire if a blaze approaches.

The succulents form a 30m-wide buffer around the home and work together with hard surfaces that cannot ignite. The nearest natural bushland is 40m from the house.

The waterwise plants need watering only once a week. The area’s alkaline, fast-draining soil is ideal for succulents and cacti, so the garden established relatively quickly, although some of the plants are four decades old.

An award-winning collection

The garden won the best large garden category in Gardening Australia magazine’s 2016 Garden of the Year awards.

It holds one of the largest private aloe collections in the country, with 20 varieties of aloe alone.

The property also has a water storage and pump system that can be operated by text message, using water collected from the property’s own run-off.

“People say looking at the garden is like swimming over a reef, there is so much colour and texture to look at,” Bill says.

“This garden has become my passion but the functionality is also really important and I try to get the word out to people that they can create a space of beauty and protect their home at the same time.”

Planning a garden in a bushfire-prone area

Plant choice is only one part of preparing a home for bushfire.

If you are building or landscaping in a bushfire-prone area, find out your property’s Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) and check your local council’s requirements before you plan the garden.

Keep the area closest to the house low in fuel, with well-spaced plants and non-combustible surfaces such as paving and gravel.

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