A fast-growing city with room to play
Wentzville has grown quickly, and many of its yards are new. Its population went from 29,070 in 2010 to 44,372 in 2020, a 52.6% jump in ten years. The town was laid out in 1855 and named for Erasmus Livingston Wentz, a Northern Missouri Railroad engineer. Today its biggest employer is the General Motors Wentzville Assembly plant, and Rotary Park hosts the St. Charles County Fair.
Families buying into those new subdivisions want backyards they can actually use, and that usually means play space.
Backyard fields and batting cages
A private field is the biggest version of a backyard turf job, and it’s the project in our photo: a backyard baseball diamond with striped turf. Smaller versions are more common. A hitting lane along the fence, a pitching area, or a turf strip inside a batting cage net gives players a surface they can use the day after a storm.
For cages and training areas we recommend Legacy Speed. It’s a 3/4-inch slit-film turf on a foam pad and needs no infill. For a full lawn or outfield, a taller landscape turf holds up better to running and looks right from the house.
Why grass struggles under play
Kids and cleats wear out natural grass in the same few spots every season. Missouri Botanical Garden says tall fescue, the common lawn grass here, can struggle in hot, humid weather, and zoysia stays tan from early fall through late spring. Spring is also the wettest stretch: NOAA normals put April and May at about 4.7 and 4.8 inches of rain. That combination is how a batter’s box turns into a mud hole by June. Turf over a drained rock base stays playable through all of it.
Water in Wentzville
The City of Wentzville runs water and wastewater service. Its 2025 water quality report says the city buys most of its water through Public Water Supply District No. 2, which in turn buys from the City of St. Louis, and keeps two wells of its own. A turf play area doesn’t need any of it to stay green.
