How to Mow Stripes In Your Lawn

Striped lawns create the perfect finishing touch, achieving that pristine, immaculate finish for gardens and entranceways. 

As a result, they are widely used across homes, businesses and sought-after venues, including everything from elegant domestic homes, to the gardens of luxurious wedding venues. 

If you’re looking to raise your turf game, then you’ll be pleased to learn that mowing stripes in your lawn is a surprisingly easy process. 

Below, Buckley Turf’s expert team have shared their handy guide to mowing stripes, including recommended techniques, plus insider tips and tricks. 

 

Lawn stripe designs

Lawn stripes are used across a wide range of property types, to elevate the look of outdoor spaces. Striped grass helps property owners to achieve a well-kept, high-quality finish, while also helping to make the lawn feel more spacious. 

This is great for businesses looking to create a professional impression for visitors, events spaces creating a luxurious feel for guests, or home owners that want their gardens to feel more polished and inviting. 

What’s more, another benefit of lawn stripes is that they can help you to mow your lawns in a more effective way. When creating (and maintaining) these stripes, you have to mow the grass in controlled straight lines. As a result, these techniques lead to the grass being cut more evenly, and also reduces the risk of scalping. This even finish can also help to make it more obvious if any parts of the lawn are patching or thinning, allowing you to apply treatments more effectively. 

There are a number of lawn stripe patterns that you can opt for in your property. Some of the most popular options include: 

• Straight stripes – The most common pattern, the use of parallel stripes creates a neat, clean appearance. They are suitable for almost any shape of lawn, but are particularly popular in professional settings (such as commercial entrances).
• Criss-cross or chequerboard – This design is widely used in professional sports lawns, and it creates a striking, modern effect. It is created by first mowing straight stripes in one direction, before repeating the mowing of straight, even stripes at a right angle. 
• Diagonal patterns – Diagonal stripes can be a great choice for lawns that have an irregular shape, or that have a particular focal point (e.g. a fountain) off-centre, which the property owner would like to draw attention to.

 

How to mow stripes in your lawn 

Stripes in a lawn are achieved by carefully engineering the way that light is reflected.

This is because, when grass blades bend away from you, they reflect more light. As a result, they appear lighter (then when the grass bends towards you, they look darker). 

Knowing this, you can easily create a striped effect in your lawn. 

You can mow stripes in your lawn by following the steps below: 

1. Prepare your lawn – To start, ensure your lawn is well-cut, mowing it to the usual height. Ensure the grass is dry, to ensure a clean bend and cut. 
2. Carefully plan your first stripe – The first stripe will be used as the guide for all of the rest. So, you’ll need to ensure that the first one is mowed as precisely as possible. For this, we recommend using a straight edge in the lawn (e.g. a path or a fence) as your guide. You’ll also achieve this effect much more easily with a cylinder-type mower.
3. Mow the rest of the lines – Then, you can mow the rest of the lines, following straight, controlled passes. Ensure each pass is overlapped slightly (to ensure no parts are missed). Then, once you reach the end of the line, lift the mower, turn on the spot, then move into position for the next line, mowing in the opposite direction to the previous line. 

 

Tips and tricks for mowing better stripes

To achieve the best results from your mowing, here are our tips and tricks: 

• Use a heavy roller (if you have one) – This will help you to achieve sharper stripes, which last longer 
• Use a Cylinder Mower to give maximum effect
• Don’t cut the grass too short – If the grass is too short, then the lines won’t look as defined. 
• Keep your mower blades sharp – This will keep the cuts clean, and so sharpen the effect of the mowing. 
• Position your stripes based on the light – Stripes achieve the best effect when the viewer is facing the sun. So, try to position your stripes accordingly. 
• Keep practicing! – The more you practice, the more neat and well-defined your lines will look. 

 

In no time, you’ll have achieved elegant striping, which brings character and structure to your lawn.

If you’re looking to upgrade your lawn, or invest in new landscaping suppliers for your outdoor spaces, Buckley Turf’s friendly, professional team are on hand to help.