Thursday, 27 May 2010

Creating a Striped Lawn

From football pitches, to tennis courts to garden shows we’ve all seen those amazing stripes in their full glory adorning the grass. Striped lawns look good as they hide imperfections in a lawn such as slight differences in colour. This is because the stripes visually break up the lawn surface with narrow bands of different colour so gradual changes across a wider area are not so noticeable.

So how do you get this effect on your lawn, surely it takes a lot of time, effort and cultivation, specialised tools and a will of iron, no not mention the worlds greenest finger?

Well actually no. Striped lawns are nowhere near as difficult as you might imagine, they just take a bit of knowhow, and the right tools for the job (Oh and a lawn).

So what is this mythical set of tools required? Well actually it’s just a lawnmower. Granted it’s not just any lawnmower, but it’s not anything out of the ordinary either. As lawnmowers come in different types, with the most typical being hover lawnmowers and rotary lawnmowers (also known as cylinder lawnmowers) you need to choose the right one.

Hover lawnmowers are of no use at all here and the reason is because to get the desired effect you have to press on the grass as it is cut. So a rotary lawnmower is the way to go. On top of this it makes all the difference if the mower you choose has a rear roller on it as well.

Now you have the tools (well the tool), we’ll cover the how to part.

A striped lawn is achieved by following a simple pattern of mowing. Most important to remember is only push the mower in one direction for each stripe. So once you mow a stripe in one direction then turn 180 degrees and mow the other way for the other stripe (or one way for light and the other for the dark stripe) then continue in this manner across the lawn.

Before you now it you’ll have the desired effect on your lawn and be the envy of your neighbours.

For a great range of rear roller lawnmowers, visit www.worldofmowers.ltd.uk