Lawn striping is essential to achieving a pristine pro finish. Help keep your grass fresh and update your aesthetic by changing how you stripe your yard. Continuously mowing in the same direction can inhibit growth and compress soil. Varying the mowing pattern every two to three weeks can help maintain healthy growth for a lush lawn.
Try these techniques and tips the next time you mow your yard. Consider attaching a lawn roller or lawn striping kit to your mower to press the grass to the ground as you mow.
Regular Stripes
- Begin by mowing the perimeter of your lawn.
- Mow back and forth in opposite directions through your entire yard.
- When you turn at the end of each row, use a “Y” turn. This helps prevent turf damage.
- Go over the perimeter once more at the end to cover up offsets in the pattern.
Plaid Stripes
- Mow straight lines back and forth in the opposite direction of the entire lawn.
- Finish the job by going over the perimeter once more.
Diagonal and Crisscross Patterns
- Follow the same steps as regular stripes, but mow in a diagonal direction of your previous pattern to create a diagonal or crisscross lawn pattern.
General Mowing Tips
- Cutting height has an impact on striping intensity. A short cutting height could dampen the intensity while a long cut has a tendency to enhance the striping pattern.
- Climate could affect the ease at which you stripe your yard. For example, warm-season grasses like those in the southern United States can be difficult to stripe because they tend to be rigid and hard to bend compared to grass in a cool northern climate.
