Take precautions with snowplows, snow shovels and ice melt to protect your landscape

With winter nearly officially upon us, you may want to consider what certain garden practices are doing to your yards, landscapes and gardens. The cold season means it’s soon time to drag out the snowplows, snow shovels and ice melt. So what should be considered when using them to minimize damage to the landscape?

Snowplows can transform a three-hour task into a 20-minute breeze, handling the never-ending stretches of driveways, walkways, patios, roads, stoops and sidewalks. However, operating this machinery correctly is crucial to avoid any landscape complications. This starts with understanding where the snow is being pushed, putting you in control of your landscape’s well-being.

Remember, while a car’s tires may appreciate the driveway being cleared, the juniper at the driveway’s edge will not love being buried under ice for three weeks. Evergreens photosynthesize year-round since they do not lose their leaves. As such, they need to see the sun to continue this process.

While many junipers are immune to disease issues, a long list of plants will not react well to prolonged exposure to wet conditions. Regardless of the season, moisture fosters disease. Bear this in mind when piling snow, and pay special attention to areas that can use the slow-dripping water but won’t react negatively to it.

It’s important to remember that not all plants are resilient, and ice can be heavy. Just as you wouldn’t want to be buried under 300 pounds of ice, your plants likely wouldn’t either. Understanding their vulnerability can guide your actions and help you protect your greenery.

Using snow shovels, follow these same principles. Always aim to achieve the task at hand while protecting landscapes. Use the shovels’ ergonomics to make them work for you. Ultimately, this will be easier on the body and enable better tool control, preventing slip-ups that can rip up lawns and plants or cause injury.

A traditional home-use ice melt containing the active ingredient calcium chloride will typically be safe for home landscapes, with the strong caveat that it needs to be used as labeled. Ensure ice melt stays within the confines of concrete surfaces and is never applied excessively. When these products are over-applied, leaching from the concrete occurs, moving the product into grass, landscapes and vegetable gardens. This results in damaged soil, burned plant roots and polluted waterways.

Finally, remember to look up. Large trees have the potential for heavy falling snow and ice, if not the limbs themselves. While now is not the best time of year to prune trees, dead limbs can be removed any time, and selective pruning for weight management can begin in the spring. Doing so will protect you and any plant material below from a harmful impact blow.

These tips will help you and your plants make it through the winter unscathed.

Anthony Reardon is a horticulture agent with Kansas State University Research and Extension. Need help? Contact the Johnson County Extension gardening hotline at 913-715-7050 or email garden.help@jocogov.org.