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Keep your landscape safe from winter salt

Rock salt is the most common ice melter for sidewalks and driveways. It’s natural, it’s cheap. But repetitive application of rock salt can lead to a buildup in the soil near your walkways. Salt creates a toxic environment for most plants. Keep your landscape healthy so it looks great when the weather warms up with these tips.

Don’t use salt

The most obvious way to keep your landscape safe from salt is to simply not use it. Most people use salt as a way to create traction over icy areas. Sand,sawdust, and kitty litter (some kinds) are effective, environmentally-safe solutions. If you want ice to be gone completely, look to other ice melters – especially ones marked “pet safe”.

If salt is a necessity, use as little as possible

Preapply deicing chemicals

Before the snow or ice hits, preapply salt and deicing chemicals. This is most effective and as a bonus – you don’t have to use as much deicer when the snow does come.

Keep your landscape well-hydrated before winter hits

If your landscape is near the road, you may not have a choice over what the city chooses to use to clear the roads from snow and ice. Keep the ground well hydrated before and after winter hits to prevent salt from seeping into plant roots.Plants are particularly sensitive to salt when they first bud in the spring. Spray down plants as soon as the weather allows you to do so.

Pick the right plant

When planting, look for varieties of plants that are resistant to salt for areas of your driveway and walkway that will receive salt runoff.

Salt Tolerant Grasses

• Blue Dune Lyme Grass
• Blue Heaven Little Bluestem
• Lilyturf

Salt Tolerant Perennials

• Stella De Oro Dwarf Daylily
• Bowl Of Beauty Herbaceous Peony
• Autumn Joy Stonecrop

Salt Tolerant Shrubs

• Rugostar© Raspberry Groundcover Rose
• Dwarf Korean Lilac
• Chicago Lustre© Arrowwood Viburnum