Remedy Your Icy Driveway With The Help Of A Common Garden Tool

Winter snowfall brings with it several conundrums, especially when temperatures are near freezing and you don't know how wet and heavy the snow is, or when it will stop snowing. There's also the big question of whether the temperature will rise enough to melt the snow before you shovel it, or if instead it'll turn to heavy slush, or worse, ice.

The best time to shovel snow is while it's still falling, which keeps it manageable. But that's not always a realistic option, especially when the snow falls steadily into the night. When your driveway or sidewalk turns into an ice skating rink, throwing salt on it may help to some degree, but it doesn't do much good if that ice is thick. Short of imagining a flamethrower to melt the ice, there is one item that works quite well to break it up, and you may already have it in the garage: a pitchfork. 

Yes, that garden tool you probably only use on rare occasions has a great purpose beyond slinging mulch or breaking up soil clumps. It's quite handy for removing layers of ice from a pavement, especially if you have a good scooping shovel to pair with it, as needed. If snow starts to pile up while you're out there on ice-breaking duty, here are some clever hacks to make snow removal easier than ever.

A pitchfork or garden fork works best for ice removal when the ice is in thick layers that can be broken off in chunks. It also comes in handy when snow gets a hard, ice-like layer on top that cracks when you walk on it. Forks with larger heads may do a better job of scooping up more ice or compacted snow at one time, and if you have several garden forks around, test more than one to see which works best for your current driveway conditions. 

Choose a pitchfork with thick tines, as they're durable and can bust beneath and through ice fairly easily. The size of a pitchfork's head makes it even easier to remove large chunks of ice than using an ice chopper or scraper, which has a straight, thin, hoe-style head on a long handle.

Scoop the ice off the driveway by using the pitchfork like a shovel, aiming between the ice and the pavement to help pop the ice off in sheets or break it into smaller chunks. Use the pitchfork to throw the chunks out of the way; if they're still in the driveway or on the walkway, you can scoop them off with your snow shovel afterward. Removing all the ice in this way helps clear the driveway without salt. If desired, you can still throw some salt down after to help melt any lingering ice particles. You could even use pickle juice to safely melt ice on walkways. Pickle juice contains a lot of salt in its brine, and brine is what some cities use to pre-treat roads before snow falls, helping keep the pavement ice-free.