Striped Lawns: How to Make it Look Like a Sports Field

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striped lawn As you watch a baseball game or golf tournament on television, you may wonder how beautiful the turf looks and how you can make your own lawn look as great as they do. We all need goals in life and wanting a perfect lawn is something one can strive to attain, albeit it is a challenge for the average homeowner. The first thing to understand is that the people who manage sports fields and golf courses have spent years learning their trade as well as usually earning a degree in Sports Field Management, Golf Course Management, Turf Management or other advanced degrees in the Green Industry. The turfgrasses that are used have been specifically chosen as they have certain attributes that are desired, such as color, growth, and resistance to disease and insect pressures on the grass.

Turf on a Sports Field

The care these turf areas receive is far beyond an occasional fertilizer application. These venues care for the turf on a daily basis and employ many people to care for the turf. Fertilizer may be applied on a weekly basis instead of once every 4 to 6 weeks. Scouting for insect and disease problems occurs every day to make sure damage is prevented or minimized if something does occur. The cost to maintain golf courses range from a low of $700.000 to in excess of $1,750,000, according to Club Benchmarking website. The cost to maintain a professional baseball or football field is much less, about $60,000 per year, but there is much less turf to maintain. Still, it is not uncommon for a professional sports team to replace the turf, which can cost $100,000 to $250,000 depending on the type of turfgrass used.

Tips to keep in mind

Even after all of these facts and figures, you may still want to achieve that striped look and pattern of a baseball field or golf course on your lawn. Actually, that pattern on the grass is due to the reflection of light coming off the direction that the grass blades lay, causing light and dark grass blades. You can create this effect when you mow your lawn in alternating or opposite directions, but the pattern can be more pronounced by using a roller or lawn striping kit that is attached to a lawn mower. If you use a normal walk behind mower, you can purchase a roller attachment that costs $100 to $200. There are even models that can be used behind larger ride-on or commercial grade mowers that cost about the same. The striping kit is a flat piece of metal that is pulled behind the mower that lays the grass down and bends in alternating directions as you mow or cut. The constant use of a larger drum style roller is not advisable. Often times these drums are filled with water to provide weight. A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, so if the drum can hold 25 gallons of water, 200 pounds of weigh repeated rolled across a lawn will compact the soil, leading to root damage on your yard. A home lawn is something we enjoy. We encourage our pets and children to play and frolic across the yard, all while the lawn looks nice and freshly cut. Keep in mind that the striping effect only lasts a couple of days before the grass returns to its normal growth patterns, and you would have to continue mowing in opposite directions again. Consider Spring-Green for all your lawn care needs this year and contact your local Spring-Green Lawn Care professional to help create a great, healthy lawn.