Yard games and your lawn

The two games at the bottom of the wear list are the two that make you walk: bocce and croquet. Neither has a fixed throwing position at all — you follow the play down the court — so the load is spread over the whole area rather than concentrated at two ends.

Games with a real lawn requirement

Croquet is the only one with a genuine prerequisite. A ball must run accurately through a wicket, so the grass has to be short — the USCA notes a backyard court need not be manicured, but long grass makes wicket-running a lottery. It is worth knowing this before buying, because it commits you to mowing on a schedule.

Bocce is at the opposite extreme, and it is the reason the game travels so well: the makers publish grass, sand, gravel and dirt as playable surfaces. Long grass slows a roll, which changes the game and does not break it.

Games that damage rather than wear

Horseshoes is not a lawn game in the ordinary sense. The NHPA court specifies pit boxes 43 to 72 inches long and 31 to 36 inches wide, filled with clay or sand, with stakes 40 feet apart. That is a permanent change to the property, not wear — and pitching regulation shoes onto turf instead is worse, because a 2 pound 10 ounce steel shoe takes a divot every throw.

Games that should not be on grass at all

Giant stacking towers and giant frame games need a hard, level base, so the lawn question resolves itself: put them on the patio or the driveway. That is better for the game and better for the grass. See yard games for driveways and hard surfaces.

• Rotate the court. The highest-value habit on this page.
• Do not play a saturated lawn. Wet soil compacts far more readily than dry, and one afternoon of cornhole after heavy rain does more damage than a month of dry play.
• Keep the giant games off it entirely. They want hard ground anyway.
• Mow before croquet, not after. Wickets are easier to set in ground that has been watered, and easier to see in grass that has been cut.
• Lift everything before winter. A game left standing on grass for five months blocks light and kills the patch underneath it — the same reason a paddling pool leaves a yellow circle. See winterizing yard games.

If the lawn is uneven as well as worn, the levelling question is separate and covered in levelling ground for yard games, with the game-by-game tolerance table in sloped and uneven yards.