Feel Like a Kid Again With These Six Totally Grown-Up Lawn Games

Grass is always greener when you get out and enjoy it, a fact gambolers of yore sensed as clearly as morning dew underfoot. At the Biltmore in Asheville, N.C., “lawn games were taken into account from the very beginning,” says the house museum’s associate curator, Lauren Henry. Frederick Law Olmsted’s original plans for the grounds that served as George Washington Vanderbilt’s Gilded Age retreat “included two courts for lawn tennis” and a bowling green on the south terrace.

Today, with the frolicsome post-lockdown vibe, lawn games such as croquet, bocce, and ladder toss are resurgent. “In the days since we opened for the 2021 season on May 15, we’ve noticed almost every single one of our guests partake in at least one of these activities with their families and friends,” says Caitlyn Pyzdrowski, sales and catering manager at Maine’s Chebeague Island Inn. Here, a few of our favorites to employ on your own plot.