When families make the trip to enjoy their nearest green space, grass maintenance tends to be the last thing on their minds. But with increased footfall and equipment use, lawns can easily become worn down and rife with ruts (shallow grooves or trenches in the ground), which can be a safety hazard for children using the facilities.
Large patches of missing grass can also lead to muddy conditions after rainfall, which can be slippery underfoot, potentially causing accidents. With this in mind, regular maintenance of your grass park playground is essential making sure kids can play freely while families are assured of their safety on the lawn.
First Impressions of Your Green Space Matter
Upon arriving at the park to play, one of the first features visitors will notice about the space is the grass. Does it look well groomed and maintained? Are there large muddy patches on the surface? In general, is the park well kept and set up for recreation? If it does not appear well maintained it will look less accessible, and you risk people leaving or not using the area for play. No family or community will continue to visit a park that has worn down areas in the grass. They will see the area as unsafe and will take their family elsewhere.
From Perennial Ryegrass to Buffalo Grass: Choosing the Right Grass to Maintain Your Space
For any new playground, choosing the right grass type will determine its ability to withstand high footfall and certain weather conditions. Depending on where you are located, certain grass species will offer more benefits than others.
Cool Season Grass: Perennial Ryegrass
This is a popular choice of grass in the United States due to its swift germination rate and ability to tolerate high footfall on school sports fields, for example. These features make it ideal for people to enjoy in park playgrounds.
Cool Season Grass: Creeping Bentgrass
This type can also be grown for sports fields, as well as golfing greens and lawns. With a high wear and drought tolerance, it can be grown from seed or sod, though it requires regular maintenance to keep it looking at its best.
Warm Season Grass: Buffalo Grass
Native to the Great Plains region of the United States, the impressive durability of Buffalo Grass enables to withstand extreme physical weather conditions including drought, heat, and cold. More suited to drier climates, Buffalo Grass is also well known for its low nitrogen requirement.
Warm Season Grass: Zoysia Grass
Like Buffalo Grass, Zoysia thrives in warmer climates and has particularly good heat and drought tolerance. A staple feature of many recreation area construction projects, the slower growth rate of Zoysia grass means it requires less maintenance than other grass types.
Warm Season Grass: Bermuda Grass
Established in the United States in 1807, Bermuda grass is native to tropical and subtropical countries across the world, with a high tolerance for humidity, drought, and salt. It does not do well without sun, struggling even in dappled shade, but it is highly resistant to wear and tear, making it a popular choice for lawns, school sports fields, and other high traffic areas.
Maintaining Your Park Playground Lawn
Whether your grass was already established or you have reached the stage where your lawn has been installed, regular lawn maintenance is an essential contribution to keeping your park playground looking healthy and appealing.
Grass Mats
Key to maintenance is managing footfall. Most grass types can withstand a limited amount of traffic but will fall into decay when excessively used by adults and children of all ages. In severe cases it may even need replacing.
Grass mats serve as a custom solution to these issues. They help protect your park playground grass and make the park more accessible. You can also use Ground Protection Mesh to protect and reinforce grassy areas which are affected by equipment such as swings and slides as well as footfall. It is installed directly on top of an existing grass surface and allows grass to continue to grow through the mesh holes. As a key benefit, you will still be able to mow and maintain the grass like you usually would, without worrying about holes or muddy areas.
Other Ways of Managing Foot Traffic
In addition to using grass mats, you can also manage high traffic zones in your park playground by creating footpaths to remove excess strain on the grass while still encouraging play. Paths can also be a good place to add equipment such as benches or trash cans for general use. You can also rotate usage locations to allow worn out grass to recover by using temporary barriers to seal off certain spaces for rest or reseeding. Meanwhile the playground can be divided into zones with a mixture of rotating activities or sports so children can continue to explore the space in large groups while your grass recovers.
Think Smart When Watering
Ensuring your lawn is hydrated is essential to feed the grass and facilitate healthy growth, but too much can be detrimental. Less frequent watering at a higher volume (around 1-1.5 inches per week) produces more benefits than watering more often. To reduce evaporation the best time to do this is early in the morning between 4-9am. If you can’t do this yourself, use a timed sprinkler or irrigation system to get the task done instead.
Overseed, Overseed, Overseed
Overseeding is one of the key methods that will keep your grass surface well kept. For warm-season grass this is best done in late spring to early summer (May/June), whereas for cool season grass, early Fall (September/October) or early Spring (March) is usually the best time. Use durable, hardwearing seed varieties, commonly sold as ‘playground’ or ‘sports’ blends, and ensure you use a broadcast spreader or top spreader for even coverage. Once this is done, use signage or fencing to reduce footfall on the space.
Our Grass Mats
All our quality grass mats come with a 5-year warranty and meet ADA standards for wheelchair accessibility. So, if you are looking to make your park playground a safer and more beautiful place for children, friends, and families, then Grassmats USA has you covered. Contact us today to learn more.