Does anyone know of a brand or type of salt to use in snow/ice areas of
the
country?
The regular salt for melting ice washes off when the ice melts and runs
into
some of our ornamental shrubs and perennials. This always results in
plants
nearest to the runoff dying by spring. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Your best bet is to control the runoff -- e.g., redirect it around your
beds. I'd think twice about using any type of fertilizer though -- you'll
be walking on it which means you'll be tracking it into the house
(especially bad if you have young children) and when it runs off you're just
adding to the polluting of streams and the such. Cat litter and sand are
both options for increasing traction although they will not actually melt
the ice and get a bit messy.

Depending on the design of the area you can also boil up water, put it in a
sprayer (such as one might use for spraying poison or fertilizer, but ensure
it's new and clean to prevent contamination), then spray the walkway down to
melt the ice. This will only work during the day when the sun can keep it
melted and at that only until temps become consistently below freezing.

In our case, we only treat the walkway leading up to the house and even then
it's only treated when absolutely necessary. For example, if we get a good
snow we don't worry about it. When we shovel in the morning we just let the
sun do its own thing (sun warming the concrete does the trick).

FWIW....

James