How to Get a Perfect Striped Lawn at Home

Striping your lawn is one of the simplest ways to make your garden look professionally maintained. Those sharp light and dark stripes you see on football pitches, golf courses and stately homes can be achieved on your own lawn with an ordinary mower using the correct technique.

Striking patterns aren’t difficult to achieve, as long as you have a healthy lawn, a good mower and a steady hand you can create amazing stripes that’ll wow your neighbours.

 

What Creates Lawn Stripes?

You may think lawn stripes are caused by cutting the grass to different heights, but the effects are actually created by light reflecting off bent grass blades. Grass that’s bent away from you will appear darker, while grass bent towards you will look lighter.

A rear roller or lawn striping attachment bends grass after it has been cut. The sharper the bend the more noticeable your stripes will be.

 

Why Create a Striped Lawn?

Beautiful as they are, lawn stripes can benefit your garden in more ways than one:

• Give your garden a professional tidy look
• Adds depth and interest
• Makes a small lawn look bigger
• Encourages you to cut your grass more regularly
• Adds a wow factor to your garden
• Help your garden feel premium

 

What Equipment Will I Need?

To stripe your lawn you’ll need a lawn mower fitted with a rear roller. Lawn rollers flatten grass behind the mower creating shadows that make the stripes visible.

You may find that your standard wheeled lawn mower creates a subtle striped effect when mowing, but lawn mowers with dedicated rear-rollers create far cleaner stripes.

Before you mow, check that:

• Your blade is sharp
• Your grass is dry
• Your lawn is fairly healthy and even
• You haven’t set your cutting height too low

Taller grass will often create better stripes as grass blades are longer and bend more easily.

 

How to Create Lawn Stripes

1. Mow Around the Perimeter First

Start by mowing around the perimeter of your lawn. This creates space to turn when you reach the end of each stripe and prevents you from damaging your lawn edges.

It’s also nice to have a freshly cut, professional looking edge around your lawn once you’ve finished.

2. Decide Direction of Stripes

Do you want vertical stripes, horizontal stripes or diagonal stripes?

Look at your lawn from your house and consider where you’re going to view the lawn from most. Are you going to be sat on your patio or garden furniture? Are you going to be walking past when entering your house?

Lots of people go with stripes that run along the longest stretch of their lawn, often making a small lawn look larger.

3. Mow First Stripe

Your first pass is the most important because every stripe after that will follow it.

Pick a fixed object in the distance, such as a fence post or garden feature, and mow towards it in a straight line. Avoid looking directly at the mower as this can cause you to drift off course.

4. Turn Around and Mow Back

Once you reach the end of your lawn, turn your mower around and cut back along side your first stripe.

The roller will bend the grass in the opposite direction producing a distinct light and dark stripe pattern. Continue alternating back and forth until you’ve covered your entire lawn.

5. Slightly Overlap Each Pass

By slightly overlapping each pass you’ll avoid missing patches of grass, and ensure each stripe maintains an even width from start to finish.

 

Tips For Better Lawn Stripes

If you want to take your lawn stripes to the next level, try these professional tips:

Keep Your Grass Slightly Longer

Cutting your grass too short will make it difficult to see defined stripes. A height of around 25–35mm works well on most domestic lawns.

Mow Little and Often

Frequent cutting will promote denser grass which is ideal for showing off stripes. Cutting little and often will also encourage a healthier lawn overall.

Change Up Your Pattern

It may be tempting to just pick a direction and mow that way forever, but your grass will begin to suffer if you always run your mower in the same direction.

Rotating your cutting pattern prevents grass from getting flattened permanently, and it’ll also help avoid soil compaction on your lawn.

Try Stripe Patterns

Once you’ve mastered straight stripes, why not try laying down more advanced patterns? Mowing a second set of stripes over the top at an angle can create stunning checkerboard or diamond effects.

 

Conclusion

Creating lawn stripes really is simple. By getting yourself a lawn mower that has a rear roller, you can create those crisp sharp stripes for yourself at home. Mowing regularly will also keep your lawn healthier and allow you to create better contrast in your stripes.

Whether your go bold with sharp contrasting stripes or soften the look with less contrast, lawn stripes are a sure fire way to add kerb appeal to your home.