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Growing Home: Icy Sidewalks

Icy sidewalks can be high liability if someone slips and falls on your ice. Besides regular shoveling, many people turn to using ice melting salts for stubborn patches of ice. No matter what the label says, ice-melting salts can cause damage to soils, plants and concrete. To reduce soil damage from salts, wait for warmer weather and then apply multiple soakings of water in these landscaped areas adjacent to where the ice melting salts were used. Heavy watering moves the salts out of the root zone minimizing plant damage. An alternative to ice melting salts is to use kitty litter or sand to add traction to ice.