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Salt on Grass and Plants: How to Prevent Salt Damage to Your Landscape

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salt damage on landscape

To put it simply, the best way to prevent salt damage to your lawn and landscape is to not use it. Unfortunately, that is not always an option, and you can sometimes find yourself with salt on your grass and plants. There are products out there that claim not to damage grass or plants (like calcium chloride or magnesium chloride), but if you use too much, it can still cause damage. In reality, most people end up using plain old rock salt since it is generally cheaper to use. Some of the pet-friendly, environmentally-safe products work, but they cost a lot more. For example, you can find a 50-pound bag of rock salt for about $8 while the “safer” products cost as much as $75 for a 35-pound bucket.

Try Sand Instead

As an alternative to rock salt that ends up on your grass and plants, you can use sand to help prevent slipping on the ice. The one thing to keep in mind is that the sand that you purchase at the store may be moist. When you get it home and put it in the garage, you may end up with a big frozen sand block, which is not very useful, so be sure to thaw it out before you attempt to use it.

Put Up Burlap Barriers or Pavers

You can control the type and amount of salt you spread on your property, but you usually don’t have much control of what your city spreads on the streets. Try as they may, some of the salt ends up on lawns. If your landscape is close to the street, it will also be doused with a healthy coating of salt. One way to prevent salt damage to your landscape is to erect a barrier. Burlap is a good choice to make a screen to keep the salt away from the landscape beds. There isn’t much you can do to prevent the salt from getting onto your lawn, however. The best thing you can hope for is that there will be lots of rain in the spring to wash the salt down into the soil. In most cases, this is enough to prevent too much damage. If it is a reoccurring problem year after year, especially along the edges, one alternative is to install pavers along the curb. Dealing with snow and ice is a fact of life for those of us that live in the northern parts of the US, but even the southern folks get an occasional ice storm. Trying to remove it from your driveway and sidewalks can be a challenge. If you do some planning and use products that are less damaging and not overdo the use of these products, you can limit or eliminate the amount of salt on your grass and landscape, and the damage you have to deal with next spring. Keep us posted and good luck! At Spring-Green, we’re passionate about lawns—all year long. Learn about some of the winter lawn care services we offer, like sprinkler system blowouts. And don’t forget to Ask the Expert your own questions!