You’ve seen lawns with professional-looking stripes either on television while watching golf or baseball, or perhaps you’ve noticed them on other residential lawns. Have you wondered to yourself how to get those lawn stripes in your own lawn? Believe it or not, you too can stripe your lawn without an expensive roller.
Is It Actually Possible to Stripe a Lawn Without a Roller?
The short answer to that question; it certainly is! There are a couple of cost-efficient ways to stripe a lawn without a roller or striping kit. It may take a few mowings, but you can stripe your lawn with your own mower, a wide-headed brush, or a groomer attachment on your mower.
There are a few steps you will have to follow to get the sharp lines and eye-catching stripes in your lawn, so keep reading as we go over how to stripe your lawn without a roller.
Why Should You Stripe Your Lawn?
There are benefits to mowing stripes in your lawn aside from gaining your neighbors’ envy. Aside from your lawn looking professionally maintained, like you hired an expensive lawn company to give that manicured look, lawn stripes increase curb appeal, can increase the value of your property, and it’s actually healthy for your lawn.
A well-maintained lawn, with the right stripes, helps the grass get plenty of sun. You’ll have to change the pattern of your stripes on occasion which helps the grass get plenty of sun on all sides of the blades. Lawn striping also requires grass to be a bit taller, around 3 to 4 inches tall which is a good, healthy height for your lawn. A thick, lush grass bed helps to choke out and prevent weed growth and promotes healthier root formation in your lawn.
How to Stripe Your Lawn without a Roller
Before you get started, plan on which way you want your stripes laying. Do you want straight stripes, diagonal, or a checkerboard pattern? There are lots of different lawn mowing patterns you could use. Once you have that figured out, make sure your grass is tall enough, as short grass is tougher to lay down. You also want to make sure the blades on your mower are sufficiently sharp.
Instead of using a roller, you can manage stripes in your lawn by using a few different methods. The first method uses your mower and the mowing deck, or you could use a soft bristle push broom. You could also use a straight 2 x 4, or a floor squeegee.
Fescues and ryegrass work the best for striping. I often get lots of people asking “Can you stripe bermuda grass?” given it’s such a popular lawn grass. The answer is – yes, you can, but it’s more difficult. Bermuda grass, with its short growth pattern and broad grass blades is difficult to lay down, but there are ways to do it.
Let’s look at a few ways how you can stripe your lawn without a roller.
Stripe Your Lawn with Your Mower
This method of lawn striping works best if you have a riding mower with an adjustable deck. It’s also the most time and energy-efficient method for larger yards. You can still achieve the striped look with a push mower, it’s just more time-consuming and will use a lot of energy if you have a lot of grass to mow.
Assuming you have a plan worked out and you’re ready to mow, let’s get started. First, with the cutting deck set to the proper height on your mower (leaving the grass 3-4 inches tall is ideal), cut around the perimeter of your yard first. Next, mow your yard in straight lines. We will assume you’re going for straight lines and heading in an east to west pattern.
Go from one side of your yard to the end, make a 180° turn, and mow a line from west to east. Continue until you have mowed your entire yard. Once your yard is a uniform height, set your mower deck to the lowest setting, but turn the blades off. You just want the deck to roll across the grass as low as possible, but you’re not cutting the grass any lower. Again, with the deck as low as possible repeat the second steps, running the mower deck across the grass east to west one pass, do a 180, drive west to east on the next line.
This is using the mower deck to bend the grass in one direction, then the next pass bends the grass in the opposite direction, giving the grass the striped look. The sun will reflect light differently depending on which way the grass is laying.
Don’t get discouraged if this doesn’t give dramatic effects after the first time. It may take a few passes to get the grass to lay down or a couple of mowings to achieve a stunning striped pattern.
Use a Push Broom
If you have a smaller yard and a push mower instead of a riding mower, these next few methods will work for you. Yes, you can use a push broom instead of a roller to stripe your lawn.
You’ll want to start off with a soft bristle brush. Those brooms with stiff, rigid bristles could rip your grass blades, and possibly even pull some of it out by the roots. I don’t want you to have a ripped-up, ragged-looking lawn.
Basically, what you are going to do is pull the broom behind you, across your lawn in long straight lines while using light pressure. Again, you are bending the grass in one direction, then the next stripe is bent down in the opposite direction.
Floor Squeegee or Two by Four
Other items you can use besides a roller would be a floor squeegee, or a two straight two by four. You’ll probably want to affix the two by four to a handle or another stud in the shape of a T. Then you’ll do the same thing as the push broom. Drag the squeegee or two by four across your mowed lawn east to west from one end to the other, move down one length of the squeegee or stud and proceed in the opposite direction.
Be Methodical About Your Mowing
Now that you have beautiful stripes in your lawn and the envy of the neighborhood, change it up. That’s right, you should change up the pattern of your stripes about every two or three weeks. This helps to keep your lawn thick and healthy. If you continue to mow in the exact same way season after season you could end up with unsightly ruts, and unhealthy grass.
When the grass is bent down in one direction, the blades underneath don’t get as much sunlight, and if you continue in the same direction, the grass will start to grow permanently in a horizontal manner. After two to three weeks make a 45° turn. For example, if you were mowing your stripes in an east to west pattern, shift the pattern to a southeast to northwest pattern. A few weeks later, shift your pattern 45° again. This will assure a strong, healthy lawn.
If you want to go with a checkerboard pattern, after making your alternating stripes—again with the deck on the lowest setting, and the blades turned off—run your mower 90° from the stripes and continue bending the grass down.
There You Have It
Now you can have professional-looking lawn stripes in your yard without spending an arm and a leg on rollers and striping kits. It may take a little more time to accomplish it, but a gorgeous lawn requires a certain amount of time investment.
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