It is the dream of many Aussie-lawn-owners to have their grass looking like the ‘MCG’. The stripes and variation in colour really do stand out and look great; something many lawn-lovers aspire to achieve in their own yard.
Luckily for you, it’s not just the curators of our biggest sporting oval who can create the beautiful striped-look on a lawn; you can give it a go too. Although it looks like there’s a lot of work involved, creating that striped-appearance is relatively easy to achieve. The number-one thing you must have before you start, is a healthy, thick lawn as the stripes won’t look anywhere near as good on a patchy or discoloured lawn. Please check out our other posts on how to improve the overall health and look of your lawn if it’s struggling with its condition before looking to get those stripes appearing.
Why do stripes appear?
The reason stripes appear as they do, is as simple as the way the light reflects off the grass-blade. Blades bent towards you look dark, and blades bent the opposite way from you will appear lighter. All this means is you have to bend the grass blades opposing ways to create the stripe effect. The way to do this, is to mow your lawn in the direction you would like the stripes to face. For instance, if you want them running parallel to the curb, mow your lawn in this same pattern. Doing your first pass parallel with the curb and then turning around and mowing in the opposite direction for the next strip and visa versa.
The professional jobs you see on the likes of the MCG, Golf Courses and many other sporting grounds are done so with highly-specialised mowing equipment with inbuilt rollers that bend the grass blades when mowing.
Cylinder Mower
A cylinder mower will usually have an in-built roller and tend to be heavier machines than rotary mowers. This allows them to create stripes a lot easier than a standard rotary mower. More often than not when you see a lawn with stripes, a cylinder mower will have been used. Cylinder mowers cut the lawn very cleanly and will provide a neater finish to the grass blade. This, along with regular mowing in similar patterns will help the roller to develop more distinction to the stripes that are left behind.
The best looking grass stripes are ones that are really straight. To make your stripes stand out even more, do a few passes over the lawn (known as double cutting or triple cutting) to push the grass right down and give it a really high quality cut. Keep in mind the stripes will disappear as the grass grows, so they will only last a couple of days during the growing season.
For more information on cylinder mowers click here.
Rotary Mower
Whilst you may not get the look completely like they do with your rotary mower, you can still get a similar effect that will still look great through regular mowing in the same patterns. To really get the grass blades to bend and stay though you will need to look at using a roller to push the blades down for more definition. Rollers can be purchased or rented from your local hardware store and water-filled ones are the best as they are easy to move around when empty. Better yet, you might want to take a look at getting a striping kit for your mower like this one…
Lawn maintenance over summer can be simple with the right gear and grass types, so check out the Lawn Solutions Australia network of member growers and resellers and contact your local site for the best information for your location.
