Bye-bye Juniper by Irene Shonle

Okay, confession time.  Despite knowing better, I had been harboring a common juniper less than ten feet from my house (in defensible space zone 1, the most important area to mitigate that is closest to your house --see this publication for more details: http://csfs.colostate.edu/pdfs/FIRE2012_1_DspaceQuickGuide.pdf ).

Junipers are extremely flammable due to their high resin content, and should be removed from zone 1.   I knew this, but I liked the way it looked in its bed, and I just couldn't bring myself to remove it.

Garden bed after the Juniper was removed.  I forgot to take a before picture.

Nothing like teaching a class on fire preparedness followed by firewise landscaping to make you practice what you preach!  I finally ripped it a couple days ago when the snow all melted.  I'll have to review the bed once the remaining plants come in to see what I want to do with it.  On the bright side, I guess it gives me a new opportunity to buy plants -- I didn't have many open spaces left in my garden.

For more information on firewise landscaping, please see this fact sheet: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/06305.html