After the ice and snow melts and your lawn starts to green-up, you might start to notice damage from ice melt products. Salt damage can come to a yard comes from two places – salt trucks keeping the roads clear and salt used by homeowners on sidewalks and driveways. Even if you don’t use salt yourself, it can affect your lawn from a neighbor’s yard or commercial salt trucks. Salt and other ice melts help keep roads safe for drivers and your sidewalk from getting too slippery, but they can also pose a risk to your lawn and landscaping. If your lawn has been affected by ice melts, there are steps you can take to repair the damage this spring and help prevent problems next year.
Repairing Damage
Most ice melt products contain calcium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride and/or urea. With repeated applications, these will result in yellowing or dead grass. Some of these chemicals are used in fertilizers, but in the concentrations used to melt snow and ice they can burn the grass. One way to combat salt damage in your lawn is with several heavy waterings in the spring. This will let the salt disperse into the soil and prevent concentrations building up and killing grass.
If any grass has been killed by salt, you can replant with a more salt-tolerant variety. Early fall is the recommended time to plant grass seed, but if you can supply enough water, grass can be planted in the spring to give it a head-start before facing winter salt damage. Kentucky bluegrass, commonly grown in northern lawns, has a low tolerance for salt. It is often mixed with ryegrass to increase traffic resistance, and this will also help it it resist salt damage. Other varieties with a high tolerance for salt are tall fescue, red fescue, and alkaligrass. Alkaligrass, particularly the ‘Fults’ variety, has the highest tolerance for salt and mixes well with other turf grasses.
When salts affect your lawn or garden, the pH of the soil is raised. Lowering the pH of soil is difficult, so if your lawn is exposed to a lot of salt, your best bet is to grow some of the salt-tolerant grasses mentioned above. Compost will naturally balance soil pH, but it works slowly. Here are some other tips for amending soil with a high pH.
Prevention
It is hard to prevent salt damage from commercial salt used on roads and streets, but there are some steps you can take to protect your yard. To protect landscape plants, keep your garden beds away from roads and driveways that might be salted, or grow more salt-tolerant plants closer to the road. The same is true for grasses – you can plant the more salt-tolerant types close to the road or near walkways that may be salted.
Another way to protect your yard is to use salt-free ice melt products around your home or eco-friendly alternatives. When purchasing salts, try to find products containing potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride. Products that are labeled “pet safe” are generally plant and child safe as well. Another alternative to salt is using sawdust, sand, kitty litter, or ash to provide traction. They will not melt the ice, but can make it safe to walk on.
With some planning and care, you can help your lawn and gardens survive the winter without succumbing to salt damage. Preventative measures, coupled with attention to water and composting, will help you maintain a healthy lawn even after an encounter with winter salt.
