How to Cut Stripes With a Mower

The professional striping of golf course fairways can be achieved at home with a basic rotary push mower.

A neatly trimmed lawn is essential to maintaining a home's curb appeal. With regular rain, this means mowing the lawn at least once per week. Cut stripes in the lawn to give the yard the look of a professionally landscaped lawn. Cutting straight, even stripes requires patience and precision so that the lawn doesn't end up with wavy lines. A standard rotary push mower is all that's needed to create stripes, but a mower with a weighted flap or rollers at the back can help to lay the grass flat for a better-defined striping pattern.

Instructions

1. Push the lawnmower along the outer edge of the lawn to ensure that the edges are carefully trimmed. After completing the fourth side, the striping efforts begin.

2. Pivot and turn the lawn mower 180 degrees to face in the opposite direction that the fourth edge was mowed.

3. Line up the mower so that it overlaps the previous cut section by about 6 inches.

4. Push the mower to the end of the lawn slowly, maintaining a straight line throughout the course. Look ahead and move obstacles such as rocks that could throw the mower off course.

5. Turn the mower 180 degrees, overlap the previous section by 6 inches and mow in a straight line to the other end of the lawn. Repeat this process until the entire lawn is mowed.

6. Pivot the mower 90 degrees and cross mow stripes that run in the opposite direction, if desired. This creates a checkerboard pattern of two sets of stripes.

7. Start in one corner and mow diagonal stripes across the previous two striping patterns to achieve a diamond pattern in the lawn.

Tips & Warnings

• It helps to mark the front of the lawn mower with a piece of tape to use as a guide to achieve an even, 6-inch spacing across the entire lawn.

References

• Better Lawn Care: Lawn Striping Mowing Patterns Like a Pro
• The Organic Gardener: Practical Lawn Mowing
• Lawn and Mower: Creating Lawn Mower Stripes