Tausi Insider

Photo : DimaBerlin ( Shutterstock ) If you live in an area that regularly gets snowfall, you know the love-hate relationship with the white stuff. A snowy evening can be a peaceful, beautiful thing—everything gets quiet, and that untouched blanket of snow creates a gorgeous blank slate of a world. There’s sledding, and snow angels, and kids having snowball fights. And then there’s the cleanup. Snow and ice look pretty for a while, but they also make getting around dangerous and difficult, so the day after a snowstorm is a day of sweaty, back-breaking shoveling. And making sure that no one slips and falls outside your house usually means applying some form of ice melt on your sidewalks, driveways, and steps. While we tend to use the generic term “ice melt” (or the very specific term “rock salt” as a generic), there are actually a lot of different compounds used as ice melt, and each one comes with some pros and cons. In order to choose the right one for your property, here are the ...

Photo : rangizzz ( Shutterstock ) Whether you have a traditional green grass lawn , or one of the alternative varieties gaining traction recently—like bee lawns , clover lawns , or tapestry lawns —you probably want it to be intact when spring eventually rolls around. You also probably don’t want to put time and energy into maintaining it over the winter. The good news is that you really don’t need to do much to make that happen—just don’t kill it. Here’s how to avoid doing that. Find somewhere else to pile shoveled snow When you’re shoveling your sidewalk or driveway, it’s convenient to dump the snow onto your lawn, but try to avoid doing that if possible—especially if you used deicer on the pavement. (More on that in a bit.) Both the salt in the deicer and the weight of the snow could damage your lawn. Shovel carefully Speaking of shoveling, pay attention to what you’re doing when you get close to the edge of your lawn. In other words, try not to remove chunks of lawn or soil al...