How to Stripe Your Lawn

Intro: How to Stripe Your Lawn

I don't like mowing my lawn, so I decided if I have to do it, I might as well give myself some enjoyment. I started out with this small project, and figured if my lawn-rolling rig worked, I'd do some cooler patterns next time. One of the reasons the "roller" is so rigged is because I was too lazy to actually make one out of PVC and lead shot, which was my original plan. Now that I know this technique works, I'll probably make one like I had planned. Duct tape tends to come off too easy, but it's also easy to rig things up with it. Have fun with this, and if you can figure out some cool patterns, let me know!

STEP 1: Getting Some Weight

When striping your lawn, the weight of the roller pushes the grass in one direction or the other. Because the blades are leaning opposite directions when you finish, the light reflects off of them differently, hence giving the appearance of stripes. Just like when you vacuum your carpet. Now, I didn't make a roller, for reasons aforementioned, but I decided to just take some weights, and duct tape them to the flap on the back of my lawnmower. If I wasn't so lazy, I would have experimented with different weights, and see how that affected the stripes, or how hard it was to push the mower, but I am, so I just went with what I had laying around.

STEP 2: Attach Weight

I made sure that when I taped the weights to the flap, there were no loose ends to get caught up in the blade. (I'm lazy, but not so lazy that I want to see what happens when cast iron meets whirling steel!) I also checked to see if the weights stretched the flap out, making it able to get caught in the blades. In both cases, I was safe. In my next revision, the roller I build will attach to the mower, and roll a few inches behind the flap. Once I was taped up and safe, I got to mowing! The weight will now bend your grass in the direction you mow, giving it that professional "I'm so important that I have to hire a landscaping crew because my time is far to precious to work on the lawn" look. Have fun, and let me know if you come up with some cool designs. I read somewhere that one guy mows it in a diamond pattern, but changes the length for the crosscuts, giving him a 3-d look to his lawn. If anyone does this, please send me some photos!

Comments

[BLASTFEMI]

My brother cuts his lawn in checkerboard!

[katerlyn]

How does he do checkerboard, I like that! 8-)

[katerlyn]

I have recently noticed "lawn striping" and you answered my question perfectly WHY???? :

"I'm so important that I have to hire a landscaping crew because my time is far to precious to work on the lawn" look.

[sysadmn]

You can also get a pretty neat effect by setting one side of the mower one notch higher or lower than the other. Obviously, it doesn't work if the back is higher than the front, but then the neighbors will think you've riced up the mower. Especially if it's a Honda. How do I know? I used to live in a neighborhood where lawn was a competitive sport. About half my neighbors were retired men who mowed every other day. One day, at a block party, one guy did this as a prank. His victim couldn't figure out why the lawn didn't look right. He mowed at right angles, and it had a definite three-d pattern. Took him two weeks to figure it out, then he assumed that he must have mis-set it himself.

[ehensel1]

I finally tried this at the end of the summer. Right side set high, left side set low. The lawn had a really cool "flowing waves" kind of effect. Not something I'd want all the time, but interesting nonetheless!

[tinker234]

could i use this to make a robot some how

[mikevanL]

If cutting the lawn isn't enough, why not push around an extra ten pounds with that mower. Haha still a great idea though.

[ldunn]

yea cos ten poundas is so much more

[eclectro]

It's sure to burn the lard off your butt, fatty!

[sföxx]

I like the idea.. but being even lazier I just bought an old second hand cylinder mower for a couple of hundred bucks (motorized/self propelled). I did have to sharpen the blades up first though. They are built with big heavy rollers that drive them (no wheels).. which in the process stripe the lawn if you mow in alternate directions of course. Cuts a hell of a lot neater and better than a rotary as well.

[oilpaint2]

Nice lawn but if you do not like mowing it you could landscape or permaculture some of it or all of it and you don't have to mow and you are helping the environment as well.

[Mr. Brownie]

Turn It into a giant garden that the old crazy people have on movies.

[Notbob]

Some professional lawn mowers have things like this built in, thats how they get the baseball fields to get the stripes.

[Dr. No]

make crop circle patterns on somebodys lawn when they are away or asleep

[Blenderizer]

Asleep? Not for long with a lawnmower out front...lol

[PSPerson]

YES crop circles are NICE lol

[thydzik]

why not just construct a heavy roller that can be pushed. You can mow the lawn normally making sure everything is even. And then you could go over with the roller not having to worry about the neatness of the grass being cut at the same time.

[The Porsche Fan]

that's just more effort exerted than needed.

[Biopyro]

Just go over the lawn with a broom after you've mowed it.

[The Porsche Fan]

you're done