Yard Plotted to scale, promise

make it yourself

Lawn Crop Circle

A flattened ring pressed into your own grass, twelve feet across, lit from one side so the shadow does the work. Costs a ball of string and an afternoon, grows out in about three weeks, and nobody else on the street will have one.

  • $14 ish
  • 2 hrs start to finish
  • anybody
  • 0" tall when done

grab this stuff

What you need

  • Garden twine or mason line, 50 ft $6
  • Wooden stake for the center pin $2
  • Scrap of lumber, about 3 ft, as a roller board $6
  • All in $14

Tools, and that is it

  • A hammer or a mallet
  • Scissors
  • Your own weight, which is the actual tool

here we go

How to make it

  1. Pin the center and cut a radius

    Drive the stake somewhere with clear grass all round it and tie the twine to it. Cut the twine to six feet for a twelve foot circle. Tie a loop in the free end big enough to hold.

    oops-proofing

    Measure the space before the string. Six feet of radius needs twelve feet of clear lawn plus room to walk round the outside, which is more grass than most front yards have spare.

  2. Walk the outline first

    Hold the loop taut and walk a full circle, dragging one heel. That scores a faint line you can see from the doorstep, which is your last chance to move it before any grass goes down.

    oops-proofing

    Keep the string tight the whole way round. Let it sag on the far side and the circle comes out as an egg, and an egg reads as a mistake rather than as a landing.

  3. Lay the grass over, do not cut it

    Put the board flat on the grass just inside your scored line, stand on it, and walk it round the circle a board-length at a time. The grass bends and stays bent. Work in one direction all the way round so every blade lies the same way.

    oops-proofing

    Do not mow it and do not use weedkiller. Flattened grass stands back up in about three weeks; cut or killed grass is a bald ring until spring, and it is visible from the street long after the decorations are in the attic.

  4. Light it from the side, never from above

    Put one green spotlight at ground level on the far side, aimed low across the circle towards the road. The whole effect is that laid-over grass catches light differently from grass standing up, and only a low angle shows it.

    oops-proofing

    Lit from above it disappears completely. This is the step people get wrong and then conclude the project does not work. It is the same reason a lawn looks striped after mowing in the low sun and flat at midday.

  5. Put something at the edge of it

    One figure standing just outside the ring, facing in. The circle on its own is a pattern in the grass; the circle with something looking at it is a scene.

one more thing

Wants a lawn at least sixteen feet across, so it is out on the tightest lots. Grows out in roughly three weeks and leaves nothing behind. A simple ring reads better than anything clever: the intricate ones you see photographed took teams all night, and a wobbly attempt at one looks like a wobbly attempt at one. Circle, then one straight path leading away from it if you want more.

where it goes

Layouts this one lives in

Same build, any yard shape. Here is where it lands.

  • → Alien Invasion on a Wide Shallow, No Porch Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Narrow Shallow with Porch Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a L-Shaped with Projecting Garage Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Deep Narrow Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Corner Lot Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Split-Level or Raised Ranch Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Sloped or Terraced Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Small Urban Postage Stamp Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Circular Driveway Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.
  • → Alien Invasion on a Long Driveway, Rural Frontage Something landed on the lawn and it is still here. A saucer low over the grass, a beam of green light, and small gray visitors standing very still in places they should not be.