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Are you gearing up for backyard cricket matches or soccer games on your lawn this summer? In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about marking up your lawn and getting it game-ready!
How Do You Create a Backyard Cricket Pitch?
Summer is the ideal season to create a cricket pitch, as your lawn is actively growing and can repair itself quickly if any damage occurs. Start by selecting an area—ideally, a flat space. Consider the best direction for the pitch, ensuring it’s positioned away from glass windows or parked cars for safety.
Mowing in your Cricket Pitch
The next step is mowing in your pitch. The ideal grass type for cricket pitches will be couch grass like TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda so that it can be mown low. Other grasses like kikuyu and zoysia lawns are also good options.
Before you start, work out roughly where your pitch will start and finish and mark it with a stake or marker to use as a guide when mowing. To mow in your cricket pitch, lower your mowers height, ensuring you are getting a low cut and keep your mowers catcher on. Please note, it is important to ensure there is still some of the grass there to avoid a sticky wicket.
Rolling your Pitch
If you happen to have a roller on hand or a heavy cylinder mower with a roller attachment, go over the area. This will help compact the area further for a better bounce.
How to Paint a Cricket Crease
To mark your crease, we recommend using some marking paint (or landscaper chalk) and mark both ends. This paint won’t kill the grass and will wash off with water, so it may need a refresh if there is rainfall.
Ideally, you want the crease to be as long as your bat plus its handle. When marking the line, use either a plank of wood or a broom handle to help keep your line straight.
After this, set up your stumps and you will be good to go!
Aftercare for Your Pitch
If there are periods of hot and dry weather, ensure you keep the water up to the lawn after you call time. It is also ideal to give the soil a quick aerate with a garden fork to help decompact the soil base after it has had plenty of wear!
How to Create a Backyard Soccer Field
The first step is to evaluate how much space you have for your field. If you have a smaller area, you should be able to accommodate a goal mouth, or a medium-sized lawn should be able to fit a half-field layout.
It is also best to ensure your lawn is lush and healthy before setting up your field. If your lawn needs a quick pick up, we recommend applying a liquid fertiliser, like our Exceed Liquid Fertiliser for an instant boost. This is available on our online store, local retailers and Bunnings stores.
Marking Out Your Soccer Field
To mark out the main field dimensions, drop the height on your mower by a notch or two and mow in the perimeter of your allocated field, or alternatively spray the boundary with some marking paint.
For the more intricate boundary lines like the goal area, penalty area and penalty arc, we recommend using a marking paint for best results.
The final step is to add in your goal, and you will be ready for kick-off!
For more lawn care tips and advice, make sure you check out our other lawn care blogs here.
Does your lawn not look its best, but not sure what’s causing it or how to get it back on track? In this blog, we take a look at how to diagnose common lawn problems and how to help get your lawn in full health.
What Does Lawn Grub Damage Look Like?
Does your lawn have brown, dry damage that quickly spreads across your lawn? Lawn grubs and armyworms will eat away at the stem or grass roots, causing a distinguishable line of damage. Another common sign that your lawn may face grub or armyworm damage is increased black beetle or moth activity on or around the lawn. If you are concerned about grubs in your lawn, we recommend doing a grub test.
To do a grub test, mix up a bucket of water and add a few drops of dishwashing liquid. Then, pour this over the edge of the green grass and where the damage is. If there are grubs, they will rise up to the surface to breathe. This test is best done at dawn or dusk when the grubs are most likely to be active.
If you do find that there are grubs present, we recommend using a fast acting insecticide like Battle to get a quick knockdown of the damage-causing pests. Following this, we also recommend using a grub prevention product like our Grub Guard Ultimate.
For more information on how to help stop and prevent lawn grubs, please check out our blog here.
Lawn Grub Damage
What Does Urine Burn Look Like?
Another common issue individuals may face with their lawn is urine burn. As dog’s urine can contain a concentrated amount of nitrogen, this can cause some burning and die-off on our lawns. When urine burns occur, the damage will be isolated to a small area and the patch will not spread like grub damage will.
There are a few methods you can try to help stop and reduce the impact of urine burns on your lawn. Please check out our blog for more information here.
Dog Urine Burn
What Does a Scalped Lawn Look Like?
Does your lawn get dry-looking patches after mowing, or does mowing your lawn remove all its green leaves? If the answer is yes, you might be scalping your lawn. Scalping can occur if:
– The lawn has grown too long in between mows.
– If the lawn levels are uneven.
– If there is an accumulation of thatch within the turf profile.
Scalped Lawn
So, how can you stop scalping from occurring?
If your scalping is occurring from your lawn growing too long in between mows or if there is an accumulation of thatch, you will need to reset the height of your lawn. To do this, drop your mower height a few notches lower than your preferred mowing height – if there is an accumulation of thatch, you may need to go lower than this. Please note, when doing this to buffalo grass, you will need to ensure the above-ground runners are still present. After this, the lawn won’t look its best, but this will allow the new green leaf to grow back in at a lower height, so it’s not all removed when mowing. On your next mow, raise your mower back up to its normal mowing height and continue to mow regularly.
*Please note, it is best to only do this throughout the warmer months while your lawn is actively growing and should be avoided in winter.
If scalping has occurred due to uneven levels in your lawn, we recommend top dressing with washed or screened sand. For more information on how to top-dress your lawn, please check out our blog here.
What Does a Compacted Lawn Look Like?
Compacted soils will usually occur if there are high amounts of traffic on a lawn, or if there is a high amount of clay in the soil profile. Some tell-tale signs that you may have a compacted lawn include water pooling at the surface, thinning of grass, shallow roots and slow growth.
An easy way to tell if your lawn is compacted is to test and see if a screwdriver can easily be inserted into the soil. If the soil is compacted this will be difficult to do.
For aerating your lawn, we recommend using either a sturdy garden fork or a core aerator. To aerate, simply drive the fork into the profile and give it a good wiggle to help decompact the soil base. Following this, repeat this process across the lawn around 10cm apart. Alternatively, if you have a larger area to cover, you may want to hire a motorised aerator to help make this a quicker and easier task.
For more information on how to aerate your lawn, check out our blog here.
When it comes to achieving a lush, well-maintained lawn, Plant Growth Regulators, also known as PGRs like Primo Maxx might just be the best-kept secret. Plant growth regulators work behind the scenes to help your lawn grow thicker instead of taller. This ultimately helps cut mowing requirements in half while improving the overall appearance of your lawn.
Who Should Use a PGR?
PGR’s like Primo Maxx are a great product for anyone who wants to reduce the amount of mowing needed throughout the warmer months or anyone who is looking to take their lawn to the next level. With just one application, you will effectively hold back the vertical growth of your lawn for your lawn for around 3-4 weeks in periods when you may normally need to be mowing your lawn a few times a week to keep up with growth.
This makes it an ideal product to use if you are about to go on holiday and won’t be able to mow for a few weeks, are a FIFO worker or are just not a fan of mowing!
What are the benefits of using Primo Maxx?
Primo Maxx has many benefits including:
Reduce grass growth: reduce mowing.
Less bare patches: improved aesthetic.
Greener grass.
The best-looking edges with less work.
Reduction in grass seed heads.
Reduces your lawns water requirements.
With so many benefits and a reduction in maintenance when growth is at its peak, it is a fantastic product to use.
How Does Primo Maxx Work?
Primo Maxx will encourage the grass to grow thicker rather than taller. Lateral stems of the grass become fuller, and the lawn will improve in colour. It works by slowing down the gibberellic acid, a plant hormone that promotes cell elongation. Vertical growth is slowed while the lateral and below ground rhizomes, stolons and roots are stimulated.
Primo Maxx
When Should I Use a PGR?
As PGR’s like Primo Maxx slow the growth of your lawn down, it is best to only use them throughout the warmer months when growth is fastest. It is also recommended that you use them only when your lawn is healthy and not under stress. If your lawn is under stress on application, it will slow down the repair, which is not ideal.
How Do I Apply Primo Maxx?
When applying PGR, it is best to first calibrate your sprayer. Calibrating your sprayer will help you work out how much of the product your sprayer will disperse per m2. This is especially important when using highly concentrated products like Primo Maxx.
To calibrate your sprayer, measure out 10m2 on a hard concrete surface like a driveway. Then, place some markers so that you know where your designated 10m2 is. Then, fill up your sprayer with water. Before spraying your area, get a timer out. Then time how long it takes you to spray your area size. When finished, press stop and note of how long it took you to spray the area.
Next, you will need to use a measuring jug. Spray water into the measuring jug for however long it took you to spray the 10m2. (e.g. If it took you 40 seconds to spray your area, measure how much water your sprayer uses in 40 seconds.) Now we will know how much water is required to spray 10m2. We can then times this volume by 10 to find out how much water is required to spray 100m2.
What are the Application Rates for Primo Maxx?
Following the calibration of your sprayer, use the correct amount of Primo Maxx needed for your area. For Buffalo, Common Couch and Hybrid Couch add 10 to 40mL of Primo Maxx per 100m2. For Kikuyu add 20 to 80mL of Primo Maxx per 100m2.
*When applying Primo Maxx for the first time, we do recommend sticking to the lower application rate for your grass type.
For more lawn care tips and advice, make sure you check out our other lawn care blogs here.
