Salt, Plows and Voles: How to Protect Your Lawn This Winter (and Repair It in Spring)

In this guide

1. 1. De-icing salt damage
2. 2. Plow and snowblower damage
3. 3. Vole damage
4. A quick November checklist
5. Common mistakes to avoid

Snow itself is good for a lawn. It insulates the grass from bitter cold and drying winds. The damage that shows up every spring along Northeast driveways and sidewalks usually comes from three other things: de-icing salt, plows and snowblowers, and voles. All three are easy to reduce if you prepare in November.

1. De-icing salt damage

What it looks like

Brown, dead or thin grass in a strip along the driveway, sidewalk or street, usually showing up in early spring and often getting worse as the weather warms. The grass closest to the pavement is hit hardest.

Why it happens

Rock salt (sodium chloride) is the cheapest and most common de-icer. When snow melts, the salty water soaks into the lawn edge. Salt pulls water out of grass roots, essentially causing drought even when the soil is wet, and sodium can damage soil structure over time. Plowed snow from the street often carries even more salt.

Prevent it

• Use less. Most people use far more salt than needed. A coffee mug of salt is often enough for a 20-foot driveway or about 10 sidewalk squares, spread evenly with gaps between granules.
• Shovel first, then salt. Salt is meant to break the bond between ice and pavement, not melt a full snowfall.
• Consider alternatives near the lawn. Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride work at lower temperatures and are generally considered less damaging to plants than rock salt, though all de-icers can harm plants in large amounts. Sand or non-clumping kitty litter add traction without melting anything.
• Sweep up leftover salt from the pavement once the ice is gone, so it doesn't wash into the lawn later.
• Pay attention to where meltwater runs. If it drains from the driveway straight onto the lawn, that's the area to watch.

Repair it in spring

1. Flush the soil. Once the ground thaws, water the damaged strip heavily several times over a couple of weeks to leach salt below the root zone. Spring rain helps.
2. Consider gypsum for heavy salt exposure. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) is often recommended to help displace sodium in salt-affected soils. It's not a cure-all, and it works only with plenty of water, but it's a reasonable step for areas that get hit every year.
3. Reseed after flushing. Rake out dead grass and reseed. For strips that get salted every winter, choose a salt-tolerant mix. Some fine fescues and specially bred salt-tolerant grasses do better along roads and walks.

2. Plow and snowblower damage

What it looks like

Torn-up chunks of sod, scraped bare strips along the driveway edge, and ruts in the lawn.

Prevent it

• Stake your edges. Put snow stakes or driveway markers along the edges of the driveway and walkways before the ground freezes. Plow drivers (and you, with the snowblower) can see where the pavement ends.
• Adjust the snowblower skid shoes so the auger housing rides a little higher if you clear gravel or lawn-edge areas.
• Talk to your plow service. Ask them to keep the blade raised along the lawn edge and to avoid piling snow on the same section of lawn every time. Piles that sit for weeks also invite snow mold.
• Mark curbside drains, sprinkler heads and low landscape lights that a plow could catch.

Repair it in spring

1. Look for sod chunks. If the plow peeled up sections of turf, they can often be pressed back into place and watered if you find them early in spring.
2. Fill ruts and scrapes. Rake out loose debris and fill low spots with topsoil, firming it lightly.
3. Reseed. Spring repairs can work, but late summer and early fall is the best seeding window in the Northeast. For patches that need to look good sooner, seed in spring and keep the area moist. See the fall seeding guide for technique.
4. Watch your pre-emergent. If you're seeding damaged areas in spring, don't put a standard crabgrass pre-emergent over them, because it will stop the grass seed too. See the weed control calendar for seeding-safe options.

3. Vole damage

What it looks like

When the snow melts, you see winding, shallow surface trails about an inch or two wide, where the grass is chewed down to the soil. They look like a maze of narrow paths across the lawn, often leading to small holes.

Why it happens

Voles are small, mouse-like rodents. Under the cover of snow, they're protected from hawks and foxes, so they travel and feed on the grass surface all winter. They are different from moles, which tunnel underground and raise ridges and mounds of soil.

Prevent it

• Mow short going into winter. A final cut at about 2 to 2.5 inches leaves less cover for voles. See the winterizing guide.
• Clear leaves and debris from the lawn edges.
• Pull mulch back from tree trunks and shrubs a few inches. Voles also chew bark under snow, which can kill young trees and shrubs. Hardware cloth guards around young trunks help.
• Keep tall grass and brush near the lawn trimmed back, since voles move in from those areas.

Repair it in spring

Vole damage looks dramatic but usually recovers on its own. The grass crowns and roots are generally intact.

1. Rake the trails lightly to remove dead grass and loosen the surface.
2. Topdress any bare trails with a thin layer of topsoil or compost.
3. Overseed the trails if they haven't filled in by late spring.
4. Feed normally in the next fertilizer window; growing grass fills trails quickly.

A quick November checklist

Common mistakes to avoid

• Over-salting walks and driveways, then throwing salty snow onto the lawn edge.
• Waiting until the ground freezes to put in snow stakes.
• Assuming vole trails need reseeding right away. Give them a few weeks of spring growth first.
• Reseeding salt-damaged areas without flushing the salt out first.
• Putting a standard crabgrass pre-emergent over newly seeded repairs.

A little prep before the first storm saves a lot of patching in April. For the full winter prep list, see the winterizing guide and the lawn calendar.

Free · monthly-ish

Get the checklist before the window closes

A reminder email a week or two before each key window — fall seeding, fall feeding, winterizing — so you don't find out you missed it.

Email address Subscribe