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.
