How to Create a Perfectly Striped Lawn
Those lush green stripes in the grass. It's the icing on the cake for any even a slight lawn enthusiast. Even very average lawns can look so much more attractive when presented with that Wimbledon striped finish. So how is it achieved?
To bust a couple of early myths - it has very little to do with the height of the grass (it's not being cut at different heights) and it is not painted on!
What do I need for a Striped Lawn?
A striped lawn requires a mower with a rear-roller. These are well worth a small investment over a four-wheeled machine for how they present your lawn. With the weight of the mower spread across a roller they are actually easier to use in many instances and come without the risk of leaving ruts in your lawn when it is a little softer over winter.
This roller spreads the weight of the machine over a greater area rather than when on four wheels. These machines tend to be the choice of many cricket and football grounds teams through the winter months due to being lighter machines and kinder to pitches when in need of a cut but a little wet / soft.
Many lawn-proud homeowners use a rotary mower with a rear-roller – these machines still have two wheels at the front of the machine with the weight of the mower spread across a roller at the back. On formal lawns which are very flat, or where a lower height of cut is desired, a cylinder mower may be more applicable with rollers at the front and rear.
These mowers if be cylinder or a rear-roller rotary are not as heavy as many assume. With the wider uptake of battery powered mowers these are extremely light. There is a mower for everyone and every sized lawn.
Three Top Tips for a Striped Lawn
Machine
Set your machine at a healthy height of cut of 20-40mm dependent on how level your lawn is. If your mow your lawn very close and it loses colour then the difference between the light and dark stripes isn't going to be as pronounced as you would wish. Keep on the high side to be safe and if you aren't planning on watering your lawn through the summer months.
Lawn Health
Stripes improve any lawn in our opinion, but for the best stripes will need a lush, green lawn for the best result. Our Lawn Maintenance Programme provides calculated nutrition for thousands of lawns so the year-round building blocks are in place. The essential macro-nutrients of nitrogen and magnesium both provide a great colour to lawns, along with the use of iron. All should be used at calculated levels at the correct time of year to provide your lawn with a sustainable diet.
Process
Pick an object in the distance in order to put down the straightest possible first stripe to work with. Overlap the next mower strip to iron out any slight curve and to be sure you don't miss any grass. You can always go over the same stripe again if not straight enough for your liking to start with. When you've worked across the whole lawn go around the edge last, finishing where you started to be sure you don't draw a diagonal stripe across your lawn when you're finished! Rear roller lawn mowers will still do this even if they are not running.
If you were looking for a demonstration, view the super-speed video below of Jack cutting his own lawn with a battery powered cylinder mower.
Lawn Mowing - Stripes Questions
Can I make a checker pattern in my lawn?
Simple - just cut again at a 90 degree angle! You may need to cut in the first direction twice over to really re-enforce the first stripes before adding to them. This can be tough however for smaller lawns.
Should I cut the lawn in the same direction for the best stripes?
No - we would recommend changing your mowing direction either every three cuts or once per month. We want the grass to grow upright also so it's important that it gets a lift via light scarification or through mowing in a different direction at times for the best lawn health.
The reasoning for this being that if the grass is pressed in the same direction, it will start to grow that way in time. In a very thick lawn heavy in fescue grasses (finer grasses) it may take quite a bit of future scarifying to remove stubborn stripes. We've experienced it before!
What if I don't want stripes in my lawn?
That's OK too! If you have a rear-roller machine simply head back down the stripe you've just cut before moving across. This way all the grass will be pressed in the same direction. This is how cricket wickets are prepared where a striped finish isn't desirable.
A Lawn Mowing Service
Despite it being the case in years gone by, unfortunately providing a lawn mowing service is not our specialist field. With each of our team holding lawn care qualifications and our investment in products and machinery as much as we love mowing, we need to be gaining a return on investment from our years of experience in professional lawn care and from our leading machinery.
We are able to recommend lawn mowing services to our customers for many of the postcodes that we cover. Their services go hand in hand with our own Lawn Care Treatment Programme. If you engage a lawn mowing service then it isn't much more of an outgoing to have five lawn treatment service visits per year for exceptional results.
If we're able to help, you can Contact Us via our Enquiry Form below or call us now on 01827 826123. Happy mowing!