Have you ever wanted to have a lawn but couldn’t afford the additional roller and equipment used for maintaining the lawn. Here’s the solution of how you can maintain your lawn without the additional cost required. In this article, we will talk about how to stripe your lawn without a roller!
Everybody wants their lawn to look lush green and beautiful and takes pride in it. But to make your lawn look beautiful and your neighbours jealous, you need to do some tricks to your lawn.
You have probably seen a lawn with beautiful patterns on them in sports grounds and events, these patterns can be anything from diamonds, double stripes, single stripes, or all sorts of other beautiful designs. So how to make them on your lawn?
To stripe your lawn without a roller, you need one thing which is your lawnmower. To make stripes you need to first cut your grass to 3 inches in length and then switch off your lawn and set it to the lowest height possible, then push the mower over the grass in a straight line to flatten it. Repeat this process a couple of times to see an effective result.
To know the full process of how to make stripes and why it happens continue reading:
If you think that striping your lawn is a difficult task and requires a lot of effort and professional help, then don’t worry, here I am going to teach you how to stripe your lawn without a roller, it’s really easy and it will make your lawn from a boring patch of grass to a lush green art piece.
Everybody who cares about the looks of their lawn should try this process to give a final touch to their lawn and transform it to another level.
You must be wondering how these stripes happen to appear and what’s the reason behind the way it looks, let’s know that first
What’s the reason behind the stripe on your lawn?
The stripe you see on the lawn is caused by the reflection of light from the blades of the grass that are growing in a different direction from the other side of the grass.
The reason behind dark colour: The dark colour you see in a stripe is because the grass is flattened in your direction and the tip of the grass doesn’t reflect light efficiently.
The reason behind light colour: The light stripe is because the grass is pointing in the opposite direction from you and the grass blades can reflect light very effectively.
The darkness and lightness of the grass will also depend on the sunlight and from which angle you are viewing it.
If the day is cloudy then you will not see the contrast as compared to a sunny day. The second thing affecting the contrast of the stripes would be how well you have tamed the grass in opposite directions and how flat they are.
You may be thinking now that making stripes on your lawn will be a difficult process and will take a lot of effort. However, you can make these beautiful stripes without a lawn roller or special equipment like a striping kit. You just need to follow a simple process which I have explained below.
How To Stripe A Lawn Without A Roller?
Requirements: A lawnmower
Step By Step Process To Stripe Lawn:
Making stripes in your lawn is a really simple process and you don’t need special equipment like a striping kit or a lawn roller or professional help. You can do it all by yourself and you need one thing which is your lawnmower, as long as you can adjust the height of your mower you are ready to go. The step-by-step process is as follows:
Step 1 – Mowing
The first process to strip your lawn is to mow your lawn. Mowing your lawn and making the height of the grass even will help in the process as the stripe will form evenly throughout the lawn.
When you are mowing your lawn, cut the grass straight up and down the line as if you are making stripes in your lawn. This process will help you make stripes in your lawn faster and easier.
You need to cut grass between 2.5 to 3.5 inches. If your lawn grass is shorter than this or you have mowed your lawn recently below 2.5 inches then wait for your grass to grow. If you start the striping process with short grass, then taming it for stripes will be difficult because short grass will not bend horizontally.
When you are done mowing your lawn back and forward in straight lines you will see some stripes-like features appear in your lawn.
Step 2 – Watering
When you are done with mowing of your lawn and the grass is even throughout the lawn, the next task for you will be to water your lawn thoroughly. Watering your lawn will help in the taming of the grass. Wet grass will take shape easily and will retain it.
You don’t need to overwater your lawn, just give it a little bit of water so the grass is wet. If you overwater your lawn then it will be difficult for you to move around with the mower and make stripes.
Step 3 – Make The Cutting Height Lower
After the mowing and watering, here comes the main part of the whole process of making stripes without any special equipment.
Most lawnmowers have an adjustable cutting height to cut the grass to the desired length and you must have a mower that has an adjustment mechanism for this process.
If you have a mower that cannot be adjusted to different heights, then you need to invest in one, but don’t stress about it as we have other options too which we will discuss below.
If you have a mower with an adjustment mechanism, then you need to adjust it to the lowest height possible. Different lawnmowers have different mechanisms to adjust the height, some have a single pull-down lever adjustment and for others, you need to adjust it to 4 corners, you need to figure it out and make it as low as possible.
Step 4 – Push The Mower Over The Grass While It’s Off
This is the final step of the whole process. You need to push the mower back and forth on your lawn in a straight line to create these stripes. You have to make sure that your mower is turned off and you are not cutting the grass or else you will just end up with really short grass in your lawn with no visible stripes.
During this process, you need to make sure that you are pushing your mower in a straight line, or else you will be seeing some curvy stripes in your lawn which you may or may not like. It depends on you.
Some mowers need to be turned on to make them move around. If you have a mower with self-propulsion then you need to make sure that the cutting blades are switched off and then you can work on your lawn. If you have a manual push mower then you don’t need to worry about this, just switch off your mower and push it over the grass at the lowest height possible.
Step 5 – Your Lawn With Stripes Is Ready
After you have done the above 4 steps and moved the lawnmower back and forth over your lawn, you should be surprised to see nice-looking stripes on your lawn and you have not used any expensive equipment or striping kit for it.
This process of making stripes on your lawn is very easy and you can do it after every time you mow your lawn so that the lawn looks lush green and beautiful.
Is It Good To Stripe Your Lawn?
Making stripes on your lawn will enhance the look and feel and make it aesthetically pleasing for the eyes as well, but stripping your lawn has other benefits as well.
When you make stripes or diamonds or any other pattern in your lawn, you are doing it by bending or taping the grass horizontally which causes the grass to reflect more or less sun and that’s how you end up seeing dark and light stripes in your lawn.
If you don’t bend the grass and leave your lawn to grow wild, then the tallest blades of the grass will thrive but will block light from getting to the weaker blades that require more sun to grow. This will eventually make your lawn look patchy and thin in the future.
So bending the grass horizontally in one direction will also open up small grass blades which absorb direct sunlight. But by bending in one direction you are also hiding some blades underneath another which will not get full sunlight so it’s important that you strip your lawn in a different direction every time and not in the same direction. This will make sure that all the grass in your lawn is getting even sunlight.
Best Grasses To Make A Stripe On The Lawn
In general, if you want to make stripes on your lawn and want to choose the best grass for it, then cool-season grasses will be a better choice for your lawn. Warm-season grasses such as Bermuda grass and zoysia grass are adamant to bend as much, so the lawn stripes aren’t as easy to see. You can choose any one of the winter-season grass such as Fescue grass, Rye, or Bluegrass, as the stripes will be best seen on them.
- Fescue grass
- Ryegrass
- Bluegrass
How Long Will The Stripe Last?
The short answer would be that it depends. It depends on the type of grass, the length of the grass, and how frequently you are mowing your lawn.
If you have grass in your lawn that is not good at taming and bending then you will have a hard time making stripes and if you can do so, it won’t last long. So you need to see if you have proper grass for making stripes or else you need to reseed your lawn with the best suitable grass. Cool-season grasses are the best for making stripes on your lawn, so if you are reseeding your lawn then go with these kinds of grass.
The other factor in deciding if the stripes will last long enough is the height of the grass. If your grass is very long then it will grow wild, so mow your lawn frequently to maintain a grass height between 2.5 to 4 inches long.
Other natural factors like windy conditions also affect the stripes and can ruin them.
How To Stripe Your Lawn Without A Mower?
In this whole process, I was telling you about how to make stripes in your lawn with the help of a lawnmower, but what if you don’t have a lawnmower? Can you make stripes without a lawnmower? The answer is yes you can make stripes in your lawn without a lawn roller or lawnmower.
Making stripes in your lawn is not cutting the grass but is a process of bending the grass horizontally and facing the opposite direction when you go up one direction and down the other direction. So how would I do it?
You just need some basic things for this process (keep in mind that although you can do it without a roller or mower, it will take more effort to make stripes on your lawn).
- A large broom
- An upside-down table
- A flat piece of wood
Now you just need to drag one of these pieces of equipment back and forth over the grass just like you do with a mower and bend it in the opposite direction to make the stripes design.
How To Stripe Your Lawn Professionally?
If you are not satisfied with the above process of making stripes or didn’t get the perfect lawn as you wanted to and thinking about investing in some special equipment to make stripes in your lawn then you can go for one of these options below:
Lawnmower with a roller attachment – some lawnmowers come with an attachment of a roller which you can attach at the back of the mower, so when you mow your lawn you are simultaneously rolling it with the roller and creating stripes as long as you have the correct height of the grass.
Lawn roller – as you can guess by the name, this equipment is very useful and can be utilized for multiple purposes such as striping, flattening molehills, packing down seeds, or fixing a bumpy lawn. When you use a roller to make stripes in your lawn, it is just that you are pressing your grass in one direction and laying it down to achieve the effect.
Lawn striping kit – These are a special addition of things like a brush or roller which you can attach to the back of your lawnmower. The main work of this kit will be to bend the grass in the direction in which you are mowing it and make a stripe pattern.
Here is a chart showing the cost, time, and effort needed to stripe your lawn with different equipment:
| Equipment | Cost | Time | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roller | 100$ – 150$ | 2 – 3 Hours | Easy |
| Mower | 300$ – 500$ | 2 – 3 hours | Medium |
| Striping Kit | 30$ – 100$ | 1.5 – 2 hours | Easy |
| Roller Attachment | 180$ – 350$ | 1.5 – 2 hours | Easy |
| DIY at home (flat piece) | 0$ | 3 – 4 hours | Hard |
Does A Lawn Striper Need To Roll?
Does your lawn stripper need to roll? The answer is yes. The lawn stripper needs to roll to do a proper bending of the grass to make a perfect and beautiful lawn. While making stripes with a mower or a flat piece of equipment will be very cost-efficient but to get that dramatic effect on your lawn you need a roller that can bend the grass properly which a non-roller cannot do.
I HOPE THE ARTICLE HELPED YOU WITH MAKING STRIPES ON YOUR LAWN.
