How can we prevent “lips” from appearing between the turfgrass and the infield skin areas?
2-3 times during a season you can take a hose with a strong, stream nozzle and blow the dirt that has migrated into the grass back into the infield areas (don’t forget home plate). You don’t want to create ruts in the infield while doing this, so don’t get overzealous, but if you’re fairly aggressive you will save thousands in renovation costs over the years as well as protecting the kids from unnecessary injury. Be sure to blow the dirt out from 6-10″ behind the turfgrass line. Another chore that will help prevent the lip build up takes 1 person 15 minutes to complete or 3-5 people less than 5 minutes and requires only a leaf rake (the plastic ones work best and reduce injury to the grass). A cursory sweep around the grass/dirt interfaces will help to move any larger chunks back to the infield where they can be reintegrated to the surface when the field is dragged. If you can only pick one of these practices, then use the hose, but both together will really give those lips the one-two
