The first 6 Newsletters (apologies - the photos dont copy in from the emails)- why not contact Dine through REDI and get on the mailing list email: [email protected]

Newsletter #6:  The Firewise Day Programme
Great news! Your Firewise Programme for Saturday 23 March has been finalized (thank you Linda Hiles). It is going to be exciting and informative.
Please click here for the programme.
The Firewise Day will be held in Something Els, kindly made available to us by Thomas Koorts and Elbi Bredenkamp. It will only last the Saturday morning, leaving your afternoon free for your rugby or braai, or whatever makes your Saturday rock.
What is it all about?
Procedures start at 9 o’ clock with a brief introduction “The Importance of being Firewise”.
Then Marlu Rust, the main man of Overstrand Fire & Disaster Management, has his 30 minutes, plus Q & A time. He has had some serious experience of fire management lately, as you can well imagine.
Meet Ryan Heydenrych (photo)
He will be followed by Ryan Heydenrych of Vulcan Wildfire Management. Vulcan is involved in all aspects of Fire Management and it will be inspiring to listen to this man.
After a brief break the architect Raymond Smithtells us about “firewise building and maintenance.” It will be an eye opener.
Tim Attwell, author of “Your place in the Kogelberg”, is going to talk about firewise gardening, something we are all interested in.
Elbi Bredenkamp
The last invited speaker will be our own Elbi Bredenkamp. Her company, Enviroworks is involved in eradicating alien invasives, a topic we all feel passionate about.
REDI will end the Firewise Day with “Crisis management”.
While all of this is happening in Something Els, the RESA Office next door will be manned by Peter Koning and some members of REDI. You can see our equipment and discuss the REDI response and evacuation plan with David van der Merwe. (David is the man that designed our REDI logo – isn’t it great?)
You can even check out the fire truck of the Pringle Bay volunteer firemen.
Remember Saturday, 23rd March for your Fireday in Rooiels. See you there.
 
 
Newsletter Number 5: Create a firescape garden
Recently I visited a friend in Betty’s Bay whose house had survived the fire. Both she and her neighbour are keen gardeners, but while the neighbours’ garden was totally destroyed and the proteas and pincushions burnt to the ground, my friend’s garden was only scorched.Why did that happen?Theirs is a firescape garden. They removed all dead branches and pruned the fynbos to have lush plants, rather than woody plants. In-between they have areas covered with stone or groundcover. This way they reduced the fuel load – and it paid off.
A firescaped property comprises three planting zones:
Zone 1: The patio or low resistance area.
This is next to the house. There should be fire resistant ground-covers and/or lawn and hard landscaping such as flagstone walks, brick patios, stone retaining walls, stone and inorganic mulches.
Zone 2: The garden or medium resistance zone.
Create ‘island beds’ 3 – 5 m apart surrounded by lawn, paving or stone.
Choose fire-resistant trees and shrubs, but make sure that they do not touch each other or create a ladder effect that can deliver a fire to your home.
Zone 3: Perimeter or buffer zone
Plant low growing, fleshy-leaved ground-covers, hedging plants, large aloes and isolated trees that are fire-resistant and that re-sprout when damaged by fire. Try not to use flammable fencing materials. 
Plants for firescapes
No plant is fireproof, but landscaping with fire retardant plants or plants that re-sprout after a fire is part of an overall fire defence plan. These plants have been suggested by FynbosFire (with some comments by me):
* Ground-covers for sunny areas: Carpobrotus edulis (suurvye), brevifolia (our lovely dwarf aloe), arctotis,(bitter gousblom), gazania (ha-ha the baboons will thank you), Osteospermum (Kaapse magrietjies) and vygies.
* Ground-covers for shady areas: Any of the Plectranthus plants: Plectranthus neochilus with its herby smell and mauve flowers, P. verticillatus or P. ciliates. Crassula multicava (fairy crassula or skaduplakkie) makes dainty flowers and just keeps on growing.
* Bulbs:  Watsonia and Tulbaghia are suggested, but the baboons will dig them out, while arum lilies will invite the porcupine into your garden. Agapanthus and red-hot pokers are good. I would suggest Veltheimia (sandlelie); see photo.
* Small shrubs: Grow buchu, like Agathosma serpyllacea (thyme buchu or wildeboegoe),  Felicia (bloublommetjies),  scabiosa and Athanasia dentata. The small Polygala (Septemberbos) is beautiful.
* Shrubs & trees for island beds: any Leucadendron (cone bush, geelbos or tolletjiesbush), any Protea, Erica, Pelargonium. Also fan aloe, coastal silver oak, wild olive and wild peach. You could also plant the large Polygala.
* Hedge plants: Krantz aloe, Chrysanthemoides monilifera (tick berry or bietou – but it could become invasive and prevent other fynbos seed to sprout. Great as a trimmed hedge, especially since it is fire resistant), Searsia crenata (dune crowberry or taaibos) and Tarchonanthus camphoratus (camphor bush).
* Forest trees for perimeter: Wild almond (Brabejum stellatifolium), rooiels (Cunonia capensis), tree fuchsia (Halleria lucida), Cape holly (Ilex mitis) and Cape beech (Rapanaea melanophloeos).
(Source: FynbosFire Project)


Why make Rooi Els a firewise community?
Rooi Els is a special place. We are a caring community with one common denominator: our passion for Rooi Els.
Recently the safety of our beautiful village, our property and our community was endangered. Rooi Els volunteers went into action, protecting what is ours and reaching out to our neighbouring communities.
The anger of the fire was overwhelming. We saw traumatized and displaced people and watched as flames ravished fynbos, fauna and properties in gale-force winds. The people were victims in a situation they could not win.
We do not want trauma
What happened in Knysna and Betty’s Bay must never happen in Rooi Els. We do not want our houses to burn down. We have vulnerable people and special-needs people. We do not want residents and holidaymakers to panic and children and pets to choke of smoke inhalation. We do not want our klipspringers and our tortoises to perish. We care about our mongooses, our dassies, our elephant shrews with their “trunks”, bright eyes and perky large ears (klaasneusmuis). We do not want our Cape sugarbirds to fall from the sky.
Veldfires are a given in fynbos
Veldfires are a given and are necessary for the rejuvenation of the fynbos, yet the frequency and intensity of the fires have increased alarmingly. If we want to live here, we are going to have to manage our village.
How can we hold our heads high if the fire could not be contained because – even if we knew how to minimize the effect of a fynbos fire, we were foolhardy, irresponsible or complacent?
As sure as there is going to be another spring tide, there is going to be another fynbos fire, but we can be prepared by becoming a Firewise Community.
The recent fire was a warning to all of us in Rooi Els.
This Firewise project is very important for our community. To protect our village and everything we care for, we have to become firewise. We have to act now and be prepared.
How to become firewise
In the following newsletters we will address the challenges of being firewise in a fynbos biome; how to clear our plots and road verges; why there seem to be more fires than before; how to prune your fynbos to the benefit of the plants and to be firewise at the same time; informing our guests about the fire hazard; what the community is doing etc.
Firewise day 23 March.
Do make sure to be in Rooi Els on Saturday 23 March, when we will be having an informative and enjoyable Firewise Day at Something Else.