How to Repair Salt & Snowplow Lawn Damage

This may go down as the winter that never seemed to end. In addition to the brutally cold temperatures, many areas are experiencing near-record snowfall totals. Considering the large amounts of salt used to keep the streets and sidewalks passable this winter, the possibility of damage to lawns and landscapes is extremely high. When dealing with salt damage on a lawn, the best solution is lots and lots of water. Watering your lawn will wash the salt away from the lawn or help it to leach deeper into the soil. From my experience, most salt damage is located along the edges of sidewalks and driveways. In most cases, normal spring rains provide enough water to help the lawn heal itself. The bigger problem comes when ice is plentiful and homeowners use too much salt to try to melt it. If the damage is confined to the first inch or so of turf, it usually recovers on its own. If the damage is more extensive and reaches further out into the lawn, some repair work is required. The addition of gypsum in the salt-damaged areas will help replace the salt with calcium and sulfur, which will allow the lawn to recover. Apply about 5 to 10 pounds per 1,000 sq ft. and water it in. You may also need to add some clean topsoil to the area and reseed it. If your lawn was damaged by a snowplow, I suggest you contact the company that did the plowing or the municipality if the damage was the result of its plowing activities. Most times, they take responsibility for the damage and repair the area at no charge. If not, repair may require additional soil and new seed or sod. If the snowplow peeled back the sod while plowing, do your best to replace it back in the area where it originated, and it will usually re-grow. Try to do this as soon as the ground has warmed up enough to move the sod. The temperatures will begin to improve, and your lawn will start growing again, guaranteed. I am not going to speculate as to the date when this will happen, but be prepared to start your year doing some lawn repair.