The Assault of Salt
Most of the de-icers we use on roads and sidewalks are simply salt—common, everyday table salt. Sounds innocent enough, right? But when salt mixes with snow and melts into the soil, the salt begins its dirty work underground, preventing water and nutrient absorption by garden plants.
Above ground, the results are brown lawns with bare spots, spring bulbs that are undernourished and may not flower, crabgrass, tired-looking rose bushes, scorched maple leaves, and pine trees with brown needle tips. Salt products also damage waterways when they wash away in the spring.
The dirt on salt? It’s out of sight, but not out of our soil—and it can damage the plants which grow in that soil!