Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

[bowman316]

I live in MD, the new snow belt. and I have several brown spots on my lawn, where huge piles of snow were at.
One brown spot is next to the walkway, and I think that was where we shoveled the walkway. We were a few feet away from the actual walkway, due to 2 ft of snow on the ground. And We did put some salt on the ice pack there.

So I guess salt will kill your grass?
But in a few other places, where no salt was spread, the grass is brown too. You think this could be because the snow stayed in those spots for a month, because there was so much there?
all the snow in my yard was melted after 3 weeks, except for the piles of snow. Then those piles took another week to melt.

 

[fishingcowboy]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

Same thing happened to me in Reno, NV. It's a combination of the pressure from the snow pack, and the lack of any sunlight that those areas receive due to the snow piles. De-thatch the area, fertilize, and water and the brown spots should go away. Ours have gone away mostly, but since winter doesn't seem to want to leave, the grass hasn't greened up completely yet. Good luck, and hopefully you're actually getting spring like weather on your side of the country.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

the thing is i always heard that snow won't kill the grass, cuz it still lets the grass breathe.
like laying a sheet of plywood on the grass for a month will kill the grass, but snow will not.
maybe our grass is just not used to this much snow, like the grass in maine is used to.

 

[qbynewbie]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

I live in NY, the new Maryland when it comes to winter weather. We hardly had any snow at all after January 1st.

Last year, though, I had 30" in my yard for pretty much the entire period from December to April 15. It's possible (entirely possible!) that the varieties of grass vary from region to region but snow doesn't hurt our grass at all. A lot of salt, on the other hand, will definitely hurt a lawn. When putting out salt, go easy with it and try to keep it on walks and driveways.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

I am guessing it was from the salt. Or it could be the type of grass. If it is type of grass, then it should just be dormant and should come back with the warmer temps, but it should be back by now with the temps you have had this spring.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

Did you use salt or did you use "ice melt" ........ salt really has no long lasting effect but ice melt which contains some other chloride mixtures will.

My 9' snow plow does some horrific damage to my lawn

 

[ENSIGN]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

Look on the bright side,It's less you have to cut!

 

[DaveJ50]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

The guy who runs the local golf course said the brown spots on the greens were caused by snow mold.

I don't know if this is what caused your problem but I googled it and there is such a thing.

http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/snowmolds.html

 

[rbh]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

Its to bad the snow doesnt kill the weeds.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

oh, yea. plowing snow tears stuff up.
there are ruts EVERYWHERE now.
At the time i didn't care about ruts, all i cared about was not getting the tractor stuck.

 

[Philip_G]

Re: Did the snow kill parts of you lawn?

last year or so over the winter some fungus was running amok around here, killed a lot of lawns. Lucky me I didn't have it so I don't really know what it was.

I do get little runoff streams worn down into the lawn from melting snow though