How to Master Lawn Striping

Did you know a stripe pattern on your lawn can make fertilizing and over-seeding easier by giving you definitive lines to follow? Here’s how to do it.

By Scag Power Equipment
Updated on July 15, 2022
article image
by AdobeStock/Horticulture

Did you know a stripe pattern on your lawn can make fertilizing and over-seeding easier by giving you definitive lines to follow? Here’s how to do it.

The “stripes” that you see on a lawn or athletic field – the tell-tale signs of professional lawn care — are caused by light reflecting off the blades of grass. It has not been cut at a different height nor is it a different breed of grass. Lawn striping is actually made by bending the blades of grass in different directions.

It’s all about direction

The direction that the grass is bent determines the “light” or “dark” colored stripe. When the blades of grass are bent away from you, the grass appears lighter in color because the light is reflecting off of the wide, lengthy part of the blade. When the blades of grass are bent towards you, the grass appears darker as you are looking more at the tips of the blades (a smaller reflective surface) and the shadows under the grass.

So cutting a lawn in an opposing pattern — up/down, right/left, north/south, east/west, etc. — provides the most contrasting stripe effect. Interestingly, as the “color” of the stripe is dependent upon what direction you are looking at it from, a “light” colored stripe will appear “dark” if you view it from the opposing direction.

Lawn stripe intensity

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