Be Careful With That Salt!

By F&W Lawn Care & Landscaping · Published January 15, 2019 · Updated October 1, 2026

Icy sidewalks? Salt is a great tool. It lowers the freezing point of water, so ice turns to slush you can shovel or that simply runs off. But be careful not to put salt on plants or grass. Salt dehydrates and damages plant material, and it won’t be pretty come spring.

What Salt Does To Your Lawn And Beds

Sodium chloride pulls water out of roots and builds up in the soil. The damage usually doesn’t show until spring, when you find a strip of brown, thin grass along the driveway and sidewalk, or evergreens that are brown on the side facing the street. Salt spray thrown by plows and tires does the same thing to shrubs near the road.

How To Use Ice Melt Without Killing Your Grass

• Shovel first, salt second. Clear as much snow as you can so you need less product.
• Use less than you think. A coffee mug of rock salt covers roughly 20 feet of a normal sidewalk. More doesn’t work faster; it just ends up in the lawn.
• Don’t pile salty snow on beds. Throw shoveled snow onto the lawn away from shrubs and perennials, not into the landscape beds along the walk.
• Consider gentler products near plants. Calcium magnesium acetate and calcium chloride blends are easier on turf and work at lower temperatures than plain rock salt.
• Sweep up the leftovers. Once the ice is gone, sweep extra pellets off the pavement so the next melt doesn’t wash them into the grass.

Fixing Salt Damage In Spring

If the edges of your lawn come out of winter brown, a thorough watering in early spring helps flush salt down past the root zone. Badly damaged strips usually need raking out and overseeding or new sod. We look for salt damage during spring clean-ups and can repair it then.

Commercial Properties

Parking lots and walks at businesses take far more ice melt than a home driveway. Our commercial snow and ice management crews apply only what conditions call for and keep material off the turf and plantings we maintain the rest of the year.