As much as mowing is about grass trimming, it is also about making the lawn look more beautiful. You can actually add more beauty to your lawn as you mow by creating stripe patterns. If you are a fan of sports, especially football or baseball, you must have seen well-trimmed turfs with beautiful patterns in most stadiums. Some patterns such as checkerboard appear to be too complicated and may prompt you into thinking that they require heavy machinery to achieve. The truth is that all you need to turn your envy to reality is a lawnmower.
To have an easy time creating striking patterns, sharpen the blades of your mower and work when the grass is dry.
Basic Lawn Stripes (Light And Dark Stripes)
Basic lawn stripes are very easy to create; they solely depend on how you will bend the blades of grass with your mower. If you bend the grass blades towards your direction, the grass will absorb sunlight and will appear darker in color. If you bend the grass blades away from you, the grass will reflect sunlight, something that will make the grass appear lighter in color. And to bend the blades of grass towards your direction or away from your direction, you simply mow in opposite directions.
Start mowing by creating a rectangular perimeter around your lawn. Then move your mower in a straight line parallel to the longest edge of the perimeter. Follow the edge to its end so that you can make a straight line all the way. Once you have reached the end of your first stripe, do not make a sharp turn. Instead, turn your mower at an angle of 180 degrees; it is like you are drawing a Y with your motion movement.
Then return back and create another straight line using the previous stripe as your guide. Keep making the stripes and Y turns until you complete the whole lawn.
Checkerboard Stripes
Begin by mowing the perimeter of your lawn in a rectangular shape. Using one of the edges of the perimeter as a guide, mow in straight lines but in opposite directions. The technique is the same as the one used in creating basic lawn stripes. Remember not to make sharp turns at the end of your rows.
After you are done with creating parallel stripes, now you need to create stripes that are opposite to the parallel lines. So start mowing in opposite directions, 90 degrees to the stripes you have already created. In other words, if you were moving from east to west, now move from north to south. Finally, move over the perimeter one last time to get rid of pattern irregularities that may have been created by turning at the end of the stripes.
