Have you ever seen a gorgeous pattern on a lawn or pitch and wondered just how people manage to create them? Yeah, us too! Seeing a person's lawn with beautifully cut stripes is enough to make the whole street filled with envy, but you don't have to wonder anymore and it's pretty easy to do. Here is Lawn & Weed Expert's guide to getting stripes in your lawn.
The stripes that you see on lawns are simply a result of light reflecting off the grass blades in a particular direction. One row of grass will be facing away from you whilst the other is facing towards you in a lush, uniform fashion that makes your lawn fabulously stand out.
To create these stripes here's what you'll need:
- A pen and paper
- A cylinder mower with a rear roller or a striping kit attached to your mower
- Some extra time
From our experience, cylinder mowers come highly recommended when trying to create stripes in lawns whilst rotary lawn mowers are not suitable for the desired effect. Cylinder mowers cut grass in a scissor-like motion. They possess an internal rolling cylinder that passes a stationary blase. Many cylinder mowers have a roller at the back which is very important for creating the stripes in the grass as it bends the blades in the desired direction. If for some reason your lawnmower doesn't have a roller, another option that you can explore is to purchase a striping kit attachment.
Preparing your lawn
First things first, it is much easier to stripe a lawn which is in a healthy condition and possesses dark green coloured grass as this will help the stripes to really stand out in a prominent fashion. Before getting your stripes in your lawn, you may need to invest a bit of time into preparing your lawn by getting rid of moss and weed or perhaps filling patchy areas with some overseeding.
Creating stripes in your lawn
Step 1: Write up a plan
Before you actually hop on to your lawnmower and start cutting your grass, you need to make a plan! Start by sketching out your garden and plan where you'd like your stripes to appear. If you have a rectangle-shaped garden, getting stripes will be a lot easier than if you have an irregular-shaped garden. So be sure to keep this in mind as you will need to pay more attention to corners and shorter sections. Once you're finished with you sketch, you should now know which direction you will begin mowing.
Step 2: Mowing the lawn
Now that your plans are complete, you are ready to mow. Start by setting your mower to the highest height setting and start by mowing around the edges of the lawn at 90-degree angles. This will ensure that your grass is cut right to the edge of the lawn. Then, focus on the stripes by lining your mower in the direction you'd like your first row and mow to the end of your lawn. Turn 180-degrees and repeat until you reach the end of the lawn. Be sure to cut high, as longer grass is easily bent and will produce much better stripes.
Step 3: Finishing touches
If after you have finished mowing stripes into your lawn, you want them to be a little more prominent, you can do this easily by double-cutting or even going over the stripes again with the mower engine turned off and just using the roller.
Lawn stripes top tips:
- Mow your grass when it's dry, not wet!
- Empty the clipping box regularly to prevent the mower from clogging up
- Use a strimmer for tight corners or boxed-off areas
And there you have it! Our guide on lawn stripes. We hope this blog post can help you achieve the lawn stripes that you've been dreaming of.
If you think you need some more information or guidance on creating beautiful stripes in your lawn or require expert services such as overseeding, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the Lawn & Weed Expert team today by filling out the form below.
