Lawn mowing is perhaps one of the most critical aspects of yard maintenance. However, the quality of your lawn depends on how you mow. There are different techniques you can utilize to keep your lawn looking clean and healthy.
A football field is a sight to behold because of its lush, verdant and well-manicured grass. It is amazing to see how a regular lawn can be converted into a green field of different lines and shapes. Most football fans dream of creating their own football field in the comfort of their own yard. This article will discuss how you can recreate the same striped look in their yard.
Proper Direction of Grass
In any professional athletic field like the one in football, the most predominant feature would be the field’s stripes. Most people think that the secret of creating stripes in an athletic field is by choosing a specific breed of grass or by cutting the grass in varying height. Actually, that is not the case as the stripes are created by bending the blades of the grass in various directions.
The darkness and the lightness of the field’s stripes depend on how you bend the blades of the grass. In order to get the light stripe effect, you need to bend the blades of the grass away from you. The reason behind this is that the light is being reflected off of the wide and lengthy part of the grass blades.
On the other hand, you can bend the blades of the grass towards you in order to achieve the dark stripe effect. The reason why the grass appears darker is that your eyes see the tips of the blades which are considered to be a small reflective surface and the shadows it cast under the grass. Therefore, cutting your lawn in an opposing pattern, may it be right or left or up and down, can provide a varied stripe effect. The color of the stripe highly depends on the looker’s position as two people standing opposite each other see things differently. The person on the other end may see light-colored stripes, but the person on the opposite end sees the same stripe differently.
Getting the Right Stripe Intensity
Bending the grass father is perhaps one of the best ways to intensify lawn stripes. You can do this by making sure that the roller gets in physical contact with it and press it to the ground. The length of the cut also has an impact to the intensity of the stripe. Shorter grass blades normally lessen the intensity of the stripe as they do not bend as far and, therefore, reflects a lesser amount of light. Cutting the grass blades longer, on the other hand, helps in enhancing the intensity of the stripe. A small difference in cutting height can make a huge difference to the intensity of the stripe. Going from 3” to 3.5” or 4” to 4.5” can make a noticeable difference.
Factor the Grass Types
Grass types also play a crucial role in striping a lawn. There are specific breeds of grass that are easier to bend can provide you with quality stripe patterns. Warm season grasses such as those native in the southern regions of the United States tend to be more difficult to stripe due to their rigid nature which makes it hard to bend. The sun also plays a factor in striping. There are striping patterns that look more intense on specific times of the day and varied light levels. It is important to note that the person can see a more intense stripe pattern if the sun is behind the person.
Basic Stripe Pattern
When doing a basic stripe pattern, you need to mow the perimeter around the lawn. Next, mow the lawn in opposing directions throughout the remaining area of the lawn. Be careful when turning at the end of each row in order to reduce the risk of damaging the turf. You can do this by making a simple “Y” turn at the end of each row. In order to eliminate any irregularities, you can go over the perimeter once more.
Striping a Lawn with Obstacles
Since you are converting your regular lawn into a football field, it is inevitable that there are obstacles such as a tree. When striping around obstacles, you need to mow around the object into the uncut portion of the lawn. While gradually making your next pass, you need to mow over the turn marks in order to create a nice even pattern. This technique requires practice, but once you get used to it, you can create an even stripe pattern throughout your property.
Improvise Your Lawn
Getting the right tools and proper planning can make your lawn striping easier. Aside from achieving the football field look, striping your lawn can help a lot of you are looking to fertilize and over-seed as you have definitive lines that can serve as guides. It can also help you in finding the imperfections in your lawn such as bare spots and weeds. Overall, striping your lawn is a great way to set your lawn apart from others.
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