A Salty Winter

This has been a tough winter for snow and ice and we're starting to see more damage on some of our bricks and other paving areas that were salted this winter. To the left is some of the salting along our front paths just recently. Of course, visitor safey is extremely important so we do make all efforts to keep this entry path clear and are quite aggressive with clearing paths particularly during the Holiday Lights Show. However, de-icing salts can have a detrimental effect on garden plants, particularly during rough winters when salt applications seem to follow every snow and ice storm. It is important to remember that de-icing salts should be used to loosen snow and ice for removal and not used as the primary pavement "clearant".

Over 11 million tons of road salt are spread on U.S. Highways each year which is an amazing amount of salt. I frequently see signs of salt (and salt spray) damage along the highways with browning pines, declining maples and other sensitive plants that wont tolerate salt and the increasing accumulation of salts in those soils. Of course, plantings along our highways in Northern climates should be selected for salt tolerance as it is an inevitability. Spring salt damage may appear as brown or yellow scorched leaves, stunted leaves or curled leaves. High salt levels in soils induce a "physiological drought" that affect the ability of plants to absorb sufficient water although it may be present in the soil. Excessive soil salts may also restrict the uptake of nutrients, induce twig dieback, induce early fall coloration on deciduous plants and can potentially be toxic. We use magnesium chloride de-icing salt at the gardens and although this type of salt, along with calcium chloride and potassium chloride, are less damaging than sodium chloride, there is no such thing as a "safe salt" when it comes to affecting plants. Consider the use of sand as an option and again, the minimal use of de-icing salts. A thorough and repetitive spring soaking of the soils with high salt concentrations may flush those salts deeper in to the subsoils and help mitigate some of the potential damage. However, the best approach is to minimize the applications of potential heavy salt loads in garden spaces and/or focus on those plants that are more salt-tolerant.

We had another good crew today with Larry, Marv, Terry and Dick W. heading out to remove and haul off about six trees that we've been waiting to take down. Dick H. was also here to assist as needed. We have some other "targets" out there and will address those this month. Urban was out to prune more crabapples while Pat and Dr. Gredler worked on painting the last our obelisks for this year. Dave, Vern, Bob A. and Jim worked on some special carpentry projects and have a full month ahead of them with carpentry projects (bench creation, etc.). Bill was in to help Larry later and Kay came in to work on her label processing. Janice was here in the afternoon and worked with Big John on their presentation for this Thursday evening (7 pm) entitled The Right Tool for the Right Job. Below is one of the ergonomic tool options that will be mentioned. We hope to get a great turnout for this event. We also saw Dave E., Jenny E., Chuck, Gary, Dick P.More saturation marketing... Don't forget the Wednesday evening, March 30th (6 pm - 8 pm)talk on Herb Gardening by Patty Bailey of Patty's Plants - Natural & Organic Garden Supply. Check out her website at www.pattysplants.com. I've known Patty ever since I moved to Janesville (13 years ago) and am looking forward to her sharing her plant knowledge and palpable enthusiasm! Remember that RBG members are free with all others asked for a $5 donation for this lecture. I'm sure she'll say something about dill (Anethum graveolens) and my favorite variety, 'Fernleaf', can be seen below.