For the last three years, every spring and summer he?EUR??,,????'???s cut the lawn in a three-dimensional, checker pattern like the ones in baseball stadiums.

“There is a tremendous amount of people who stop by and comment about it,” says Whitlach, 61, a former landscape contractor, now of Guarantee Real Estate.

With your basic mower ?EUR??,,????'??+ and maybe a few household tools ?EUR??,,????'??+ you can create fun, creative patterns on your lawn.

“It looks difficult, but it’s pretty simple,” Whitlach says.

He was inspired to create his pattern one day while he and his wife, Debra, were watching a baseball game on television from Dodger Stadium. His wife noticed the crisscross, diamond-shaped patterns on the field and asked him if he could duplicate the look.

“I said, ‘I can do better.?EUR??,,????'??? I cut on a diagonal at one height and then I go back at another height,” he explains.

It takes him about 40 minutes to an hour to cut his lawn pattern. He does it about once a week ?EUR??,,????'??+ typically on Thursdays so it looks nice for the weekend.

“It’s not really hard to maintain,” he says. “It takes a little more time, but the payoff is the neat look. It’s worth the extra effort.”

While Whitlach uses nothing more than his mower, you can buy roller attachments for some mowers if you want your lawn patterns to look like the ones at ballparks. You also can create the patterns with rakes and brooms, says Pete Lockwood, the head grounds-keeper at Grizzlies Stadium.

“You can use a rake and hold it down in a line,” he says. “With a broom, the bristles are really stiff. With some downward pressure [on the broom], you can pull the grass down.”