Iâm not a baseball fan, but even I like the look of Wrigley Fieldâs striped or checkerboard grass. Neat, clean, dramatic: the perfect stage for a real show.
But for as thrilling as I find the eye-catching device of putting stripes in grass, I had no intention of recreating the effect in my own lawn. In my neighborhood, deep-green, iron-rich lawns reign, and after last summerâs drought, everyoneâs going for the green!
Nonetheless, Iâve recreated Wrigley Fieldâs striped grass, only itâs far from majestic. Mine is more the post-apocalyptic version.
I read online that proper grass striping is a matter of applying a bend to grass. In professional ballparks, most likely the mowers drag rollers to achieve the look. For home lawns, you can buy a roller attachment or jimmy-rig something so simple as tying a heavy welcome mat to the back of your mower to press the blades down.
I achieved my striping with a completely different method, which didnât involve mowing or pressing or measuring and marking your lines. I simply bought a drop spreader and fertilized my lawn into a place for zombies to play ball.
Since my house was formerly a model home, the builders went for abundant landscaping, crafting massive, winding flowerbeds, one of which stretches halfway across my front lawn. With all the turns and angles and waves of landscaping, I was afraid a broadcast spreader would throw fertilizer and weed killer into my beds and reign death on my plants, shrubs, and bushes.
I related my concerns to the sales clerk at Home Depot one sunny afternoon and was informed a drop spreader is what I needed. Since a drop spreader âdropsâ the fertilizer straight down and between the wheel base, it gives the operator more precision. Yes, precision was what I was looking for. And after last yearâs drought, my lawn was in serious need of precision. The clerk told me, however, âNow, youâre going to do a lot more walkinâ with a drop spreader.â Thatâs fine, I like walking.
I bought the drop spreader, imagining a rich green, weed-free lawn in a matter of weeks. Weeks later, I try to tell myself that I at least got half that.
After I used the drop spreader, all was good for a couple weeks. My grass didnât even turn temporarily white, which the label on the bag said could happen. Then one day, I mowed, and the next morning I woke up to green and yellow stripes in my lawn. Worst of all was that they werenât even even. Some were crooked, some were curved, and all of them ended in hooks of yellow or green from where I turned the spreader.
At this time, I had no idea what caused this. It wasnât until weeks later that my backyard neighbor (who is like a lawnmower god) informed me lawn striping can happen from a drop spreader and that he did the same thing the summer before.
âSo what do you do to fix it,â I asked my neighbor.
âWait it out.â
In all, itâs been about eight weeks since I used the drop spreader and about six weeks since the stripes appeared like a disease. I see a lot of passersby surveying my lawn, but I donât see the look of awe and wonder youâd expect when sports goers take their seats at Wrigley Field. Although I do see anticipation for whatâs going to happen next, which is what Iâm wondering about my very own Field of Dreams. Oh, and as for the weeds, theyâre still there, just in the light-green rows like Iâm growing crops, proving that if you build it, they will come.
