How do they create patterns in a baseball field?

Groundskeepers at baseball fields create patterns using a process called lawn striping. Tune in to find out how this process works -- and how you can duplicate it to create designs in your own yard.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where
smart happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, how
do they create patterns in a baseball field? Groundskeepers at
baseball parks have traditionally created checkerboard, diamond, and angle patterns

(00:24):
in the field. These patterns have become more elaborate in
recent years. Baseball fans might remember the star patterns created
at Coors Field in Denver to commemorate the All Star Game.
These designs are not all that complicated and could be
easily duplicated in your own lawn. The designs are created
through a process called lawn striping. To create lawn striping

(00:48):
designs of your own, you only need two pieces of equipment,
a lawn mower and a roller. Many professional groundskeepers use
old fashioned real mowers to cut a stadium's grass. Attached
just behind the blades of the mower is a lawn
roller that bends the grass down. Some lawnmower manufacturers are
beginning to make riding mowers with full with rollers mounted

(01:12):
to the rear of the mower to make this task easier.
Whatever pattern you make is revealed by the light shining
off the bent grass. A checkerboard design is created by
passing over the grass in side by side rows, first
going north to south, then making east to west stripes
in the grass that intersect the north to south stripes.

(01:34):
In this way, you alternate the way the grass bends.
When you look at your lawn, the stripes of grass
leaning away from you look lighter. This lighter green is
caused by the sunlight reflecting off the entire blade of grass.
In the darker green stripes formed by the blades of
grass leaning towards you, the sunlight is reflecting only off

(01:55):
the tips of the blades. Different grasses can be used
to accentually the striping effect, including rye grass, fescue, and
blue grass. You won't see such a big contrast between
the stripes colors if you have a warm season grass
such as bermuda or zeisa. Watering the grass after mowing
can make your patterns stand out even more. For more

(02:19):
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