How to get a striped lawn

Passing by a garden admiring a beautiful lawn stripes often brings a tinge of envy, but you will be happy to hear that knowing how to get a striped lawn is easy. It’s a straight forward process to do and you don’t need to bring in the professionals to achieve that classic striped look!

Stripes within the grass are simply due to light reflecting off the grass blades in a certain direction. One row of grass will be facing away from you whilst the other is neatly facing towards you, making your lawn look fabulous. Knowing how to get a striped lawn makes the process easier, and you'll have a pristine garden lawn in no time!

What you’ll need for lawn stripes:

A pen and paper
A cylinder mower with a rear roller or a striping kit attached to your mower
A little time

We have found cylinder mowers are highly recommended for creating stripes in lawns, whilst rotary lawn mowers are not suitable for the desired effect. Cylinder mowers cut grass in a scissor-like motion. They have an internal rolling cylinder that passes a stationary blade. Many cylinder mowers have a roller at the back, which is crucial for creating stripes as it bends the grass in the desired direction. If your lawnmower doesn’t have a roller another option is to buy an attachment known as a striping kit.

Preparing Your Garden

Firstly it is much easier to stripe a lawn which is in a healthy condition with dark green coloured grass as the stripes will be really prominent. You may need to invest a little time preparing your lawn by removing moss and weeds or perhaps filling patchy areas with some overseeding.

Easy steps for how to get a striped lawn:

Step 1: Make a plan

First of all, sketch out your garden and plan your stripes. Having a rectangle-shaped lawn will make the job much easier; however, if your lawn is irregularly shaped, pay attention to corners and shorter sections. Your sketch will allow you to plan out what direction you will mow in.

Step 2: Mowing the grass

Set your mower to the highest height setting and start by mowing around the edges of the lawn at right angles. This ensures the grass is cut right to the edge of the lawn. Then focus on the stripes by lining your mower up in the direction you want your first row and mow to the end, turn 180 degrees and repeat until you reach the end of the lawn. Ensure you cut high, as longer grass is easily bent and will produce better stripes.

Step 3: Finishing Touches

Finally, intensify your stripes and make them a prominent feature of your garden. You can do this by either double cutting or even going over the stripes again with the mower engine turned off and using just the roller.