how to Achieve a Beautifully Striped Lawn
WHY USE A CYLINDER MOWER TO STRIPE?
Our cylinder mowers have full width front and rear rollers which level the surface and create stripes for pristine presentation. By using two full width rollers and no wheels or tyres the stripe is perfectly consistent across its width. The same ground pressure of a roller means level surfaces are maintained unlike the point-loads of the tyres.
Allett MD Austin Jarrett talks you through some top tips for achieving a beautifully healthy striped lawn
TOP LAWN STRIPING TIPS
LAWN STRIPING TIP 1
Firstly you will need to clear any debris off your lawn. This includes children’s toys, leaves, twigs and potential animal mess.
LAWN STRIPING TIP 2
For great stripes, a lawn needs to be in tip-top condition, with a thick, dense sward. Hopefully, it will be in a great condition after regularly aerating and scarifying – two main tasks that will help keep your lawn thatch free and green in colour. Some of our domestic range of mowers have an interchangeable cartridge system which means you can take the cutting cylinder out and fit a scarifier or an aerator cartridge into your mower.
LAWN STRIPING TIP 3
A stripy lawn needs to be pristine and free from weeds too. Apply any moss or weed-killing treatments as necessary. Over-seeding with new grass seed can be done in the spring to build up the density of the turf and fill in any bare patches created by weed removal. Using Allett’s lawncare system will help keep on top of weeds without using harmful chemicals.
LAWN STRIPING TIP 4
The perfect height for the perfect stripes is 20-30mm. Reduce the height of the grass by no more than a third each time you mow, and remember that well-defined stripes are actually easier to achieve if the lawn is kept slightly longer. The stripes are created by the reflection of the sun on the bent-over blades of grass. As the mower and roller go away from the sun, a light stripe is created, then when you change direction and come back towards the sun the shadow of the grass blades bending the other way creates the dark stripe. When mowing make sure that the current stripe, slightly overlaps the previous stripe so that you do not have thin strips of uncut grass left between the stripes.