| Key Takeaways |
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| • Mind your trees: Removing hazardous trees and planting wind-resistant species are 2 of the most effective ways to reduce hurricane damage. • Placement matters: Keep trees away from your house and power lines, and group them to create a wind buffer. • Small pre-storm steps, like pruning, clearing storm drains, and securing loose objects, protect your home when a storm hits. |
You don’t have to live along the Gulf or East Coast to think about hurricane-resistant landscaping. Strong storms can travel well inland, putting homes far from the water at risk.
There’s no way to guarantee your home survives a storm, but the right yard choices can improve its odds. These 11 hurricane-resistant landscaping ideas and expert insights help protect your home from falling trees, flooding, and broken windows.
Prepping a yard for hurricane season takes the right trees, smart placement, and steady upkeep. When the to-do list piles up, LawnStarter’s tree care service can handle the heavy work.
11 Hurricane-Resistant Landscaping Ideas
Hurricane-resistant landscaping reduces storm damage by choosing wind-resistant trees, placing and pruning them well, and prepping your yard for wind, flooding, and flying debris. These 11 ideas walk through each step:
1. Inspect Your Trees
With winds reaching 157 mph or higher, major hurricanes can rip the strongest trees out of the ground. Imagine how little wind it takes to knock down a weak, dying tree.
As you plan your hurricane-resistant landscape, the first step is to remove hazardous trees from your yard. If you have an old, dying tree near your house, you don’t want it toppling onto your shelter.
Here’s what to do: Hire a qualified arborist to inspect your trees. He or she will flag any hazardous trees, and the two of you can develop an action plan.
Pro Tip: Beware of people posing as self-proclaimed “tree care professionals” or who aren’t insured. Improper training and poor tree handling can lead to severe injury and expensive damage. Always hire an insured, certified arborist for your tree care needs.
2. Plant Trees Away From House and Power Lines
A hurricane alone is enough to get your heart racing, but a tree falling on the roof or knocking out the power lines makes it far worse.
Protect your home, garage, garden shed, and power lines from storm damage by growing trees away from vulnerable structures, especially if the tree is not appropriate for hurricane areas.
“Planting shallow-rooted trees too close to homes can make a property more vulnerable during a hurricane,” says Tiffanee Boone, Interim County Extension Director at NC Cooperative Extension.
Do you have existing trees that are too close for comfort? Hire a certified arborist to remove or transplant the tree.
Cost: Tree removal costs homeowners between $385 and $1,070 typically, with an average cost of $630.
3. Choose Wind-Resistant Trees
A major hurricane might knock down your strongest trees like dominoes, but wind-resistant trees give you peace of mind that wind-intolerant trees can’t.
“The most important things are to plant trees that are least damaged during hurricanes (and) avoid ones that are most damaged,” Boone says.
Wind-resistant trees have deep root systems and low centers of gravity. It takes much higher winds to blow them down than trees with low wind resistance.
Tree species with high wind resistance include:
Bald cypress
Live oak
Mexican fan palm
Sabal palm
Crape myrtle
Southern magnolia
According to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension, these are trees to avoid:
Sand pine
Chinese elm
Water oak
Laurel oak
Bottom Line: If you’re going to place trees in your hurricane-resistant landscape, make sure they’re wind-resistant trees.
4. Group Your Trees
If you decide to plant trees in your landscape, consider growing them in groups. A group of wind-resistant trees creates a handy wind buffer against a powerful storm. UF/IFAS recommends grouping trees together for more stability.
Bonus Points: A carefully placed group of trees also can help lower your heating and cooling bills.
5. Prune and Trim Trees
The long branch hanging over your roof screams storm hazard. When a hurricane comes whipping by, it can snap off that branch in seconds.
When your trees, shrubs, and hedges have weak, overgrown branches, trim them back before a storm. You want your large plants to be at their healthiest before the storm rolls in. Otherwise, branches could break through your windows or smash your cars.
Properly pruned trees survive storms better than neglected ones. However, be careful not to go too far.
“Do not severely prune trees because it makes them more likely to develop decay and to fail during strong hurricane winds,” Boone says.
Cost: Tree trimming costs between $430 and $640 per tree.
6. Choose Salt-Tolerant Plants
If you live near salt water, you can help your flower beds, shrubs, and trees survive the storm by growing salt-tolerant plants. A hurricane can shower your landscape in salt spray, the tiny droplets that crashing waves and high winds send into the air.
Too much salt can be a killer for salt-intolerant plants. Large amounts can dry them out, prevent their roots from absorbing water, and limit nutrient uptake.
Examples of salt-tolerant plants include:
Sea blite (Suaeda linearis)
Railroad vine (Ipomoea pes-caprae)
Beach morning glory (Ipomoea imperati)
Beach evening primrose (Oenothera drummondii)
Dune sunflower (Helianthus debilis)
Seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens)
Pro Tip: Want plants that are sustainable and easy to maintain? Consider native plants instead of non-native ones. Natives are often low maintenance, develop deep root systems, and need little to no fertilizer or pesticides.
7. Install Hurricane-Resistant Fencing
You might love the idea of a picket fence, but it’s not so charming when a hurricane shreds it or sends a plank crashing through the living room window.
When it comes to hurricanes and your backyard fence, take the safe route and hire a professional who specializes in hurricane-resistant fences.
A common misconception is that solid privacy fences resist hurricanes because they block the wind. But that’s their flaw. Built-up wind pressure eventually pushes the fence over. Slatted fences let air pass through, so they are less likely to tip in high winds.
Pro Tip: Metal fences hold up better against storm and wind damage than wood and vinyl fences.
8. Apply Soft Mulch
River rock and pea gravel add beautiful texture to your landscape, but these hard mulches can cause considerable damage during a storm. As high winds scatter them across your yard, rocks and pebbles may ricochet off cars, siding, and windows.
Minimize the dents and scratches by using soft mulches instead. Soft mulches such as shredded bark, shredded leaves, and pine needles won’t cause nearly as much damage as hard gravel.
Cost: Sometimes $0. See Where to Get Free Mulch.
Pro Tip: How you mulch around trees is as important as the kind of mulch you use.
“Most homeowners either plant their trees too deep or put too much mulch around the base of trees, which causes them to become very weak and fall during hurricanes,” Boone says. “It is a slow suffocation of the tree. The root flare should be exposed above the soil to allow for healthy airflow.”
Learn How to Mulch Around Trees The Right Way in our article.
9. Build a Seawall
Your property may benefit from a seawall if your home sits right on the waterfront. Without one, crashing waves gradually erode your landscape’s edge, and hurricanes and storm surges can encourage flooding.
A seawall is a barrier between the landscape’s edge and the water. Seawall materials include wood, steel, vinyl, concrete, and riprap (rocks).
10. Remove Storm Hazards
If the local weather station calls for a storm, remove your yard’s storm hazards right away. Anything on the lawn that could come flying through a window during a hurricane, such as branches, lawn care equipment, and garden benches, should be stored away before the storm arrives.
Pro Tip: Regularly cleaning up your lawn is a helpful way to minimize stress before a hurricane. Otherwise, you may find yourself rushing to remove branches, lawn equipment, and other projectiles hours before the storm.
11. Clear Storm Drain Paths
When designing your hurricane-resistant landscape, keep nearby storm drains in mind. If you install a feature that blocks the water’s path to the drain, your yard could end up with unsightly puddles or, worse, flooding.
Clear the storm drain paths and keep the drains from clogging. Blocked drains and bare, unplanted soil make flooding and erosion worse, so groundcover and mulch help hold soil in place.
The autumn leaves you’ve been ignoring might eventually find their way into the storm drain. Remove leaves every few days and keep plant debris off the lawn.
Evacuate: Your Landscape Can Only Do So Much
There’s no such thing as a hurricane-proof landscape or home. A major hurricane can still knock down your most wind-resistant trees, and branches can still break no matter how often you prune.
So when local officials order you to evacuate before the storm, that’s exactly what you should do.
If you live in a hurricane-prone area, such as Florida, Louisiana, Texas, or the Carolinas, you’re likely familiar with hurricane preparedness and have stocked up on supplies in advance. Don’t take chances. Be safe.
Hurricanes and tropical storms are unpredictable, and climate change is making them worse. Leaving your home with its boarded-up windows is the best way to keep yourself and your family safe.
And if you prepare your hurricane-resistant landscape just right, you’ll hopefully return home to an intact roof, working power lines, and no broken windows.
FAQs
Start before the season begins. Have a certified arborist inspect and prune your trees in late spring, well ahead of peak storm activity. Waiting until a storm is named leaves little time to remove hazards, trim branches, or secure loose objects safely, and pros book up fast once a storm is on the way.
It depends on your policy and the cause of the damage. Many policies cover damage when a tree strikes an insured structure, but hauling away fallen trees that miss buildings is not always covered. Review your coverage before hurricane season and photograph your landscape so you have documentation if you need to file a claim.
Move potted plants indoors or into a garage before the storm. Loose containers become dangerous projectiles in high winds. If you can’t bring them inside, group them in a sheltered spot low to the ground and away from windows to limit the risk of damage.
Hurricanes can bring damaging winds and flooding well beyond the coast, sometimes reaching hundreds of miles inland. That’s why hurricane-resistant landscaping matters for many homeowners, not just those living directly on the waterfront.
Maintaining Your Hurricane-Resistant Landscape
Hurricanes are stressful enough, so why add lawn care into the mix, especially when you’re rushing to tie everything down and prune your trees?
If mowing, fertilizing, and edging your hurricane-resistant landscape is stealing time from friends and family, hand the to-do list to one of LawnStarter’s landscaping pros. Let an expert do the heavy lifting while you stock your emergency supplies.
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Main Image: Towering live oaks arch over a quiet Southern residential street, forming a lush canopy above parked cars and neighborhood homes. Photo Credit: Mark Souther / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
