Snow fall is inevitable and you will have to remove it from the paved surfaces. To prevent damaging your lawn, simply stay within the lines. Avoid damaging the lawn at the edges of theses paved surfaces by simply staying off of them. Shovels, snow blowers and snow plow will crush frozen grass plants. It is possible to even peel them up. This will create weak areas in your lawn and encourage weed growth.
Deicing materials can cause serious damage to your lawn. Avoid using products with sodium chloride (rock salt). Products containing calcium and magnesium are less damaging to your lawn. All products should be used sparingly. Fertilizer will melt ice and produce some traction but too much will still damage grass. Sand, sawdust, wood ash will help with traction but may create a cleanup nightmare.
Winter Care for your lawn
- Clean up any leaves and other debris from fall.
- Pick up forgotten toys, the plastic swimming pools, or any other large objects. When it does snow these objects will create dead or stunted areas from the weight of the snow and the object.
- Limit all traffic, especially avoid walking over the same area creating a path. Foot traffic will damage grass plants when it is freezing.
Using your lawn as a parking lot is very hard on your lawn at any time of the year. Winter is the worst. Frozen grass plants will crush under the weight of even the smallest tires. In short, limit any type of traffic on your lawn over the winter.
