Other. I lapped some areas and striped the others.

When we lived in Montana, I always stripped our lawn of 3 acres. I mowed with a 22 hp Kubota zero turn. I varied the pattern every time I mowed and sharpened the blades monthly. I had the lawn professionally fertilized every 45 days in the growing season. It looked like a golf course.

I go at it like I'm killing snakes.

I am not trying to paint some dammed masterpiece, just trying to keep the grass from smufficating me!


Some of y'all are overplaying this never ending game against the nature, and such as.


If Agent Orange was still a thing I could put in my Amazon cart (with free Prime shipping) well, I ain't one to talk outa school but, I got to do for me and mine...

-sigmonkeyhogwallop

My "lawn" (an abuse of the term...) is oddly shaped and full of obstacles.

I use a "modified laps" pattern based entirely on efficiency and not discharging towards the house or flower beds.

As others have mentioned, if mowing is delayed for whatever reason and the grass gets too tall, I may rake up the really thick spots. Otherwise it all goes right back into the lawn.

I also mow quite tall. 2.5 inches is as low as I go, and the part I tore up, regraded and reseeded last year is getting clipped at 3.5 in an attempt to get it to fill in.

I'm REALLY disappointed in the stand I got and blame it on believing the bullshit story I got from the guy that delivered the "loam". Still, it looks better than the minefield the crows and skunks left me digging grubs out of the old lawn.





It's been a year almost to the day since I took the drone out of it's box. It took me all day to download the current version of the phone app, download a firmware update for the drone, and remember how to start the damn motors!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PHPaul,

My lawn is filled with obstructions such as trees, ornamental bushes and is not laid out in a clear geometric shape. I break it into sections I mow individually in laps.

My old lawn guy did stripes but he did each week perpendicular to the previous week. It’s just under an acre of grass and looked fantastic.

In our new house I’m looking out at the second fairway and love watching the guys with those big commercial mowers cut the grass better than a Privates haircut!

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Do you dethatch it in the fall?

I don’t. I will double aerate if thatch becomes a problem.

I mow East-West, North to South, and then each perpendicular. That gives me 4 directions. I discharge the grass to the center and chop it up as fine as possible.

Start at the side of the yard opposite where I want the clippings to end up. Straight line blowing clippings to the right. At the end of the stripe, pull the mower backwards making another stripe, but keeping the clippings moving in the same direction. This is how I learned from doing paid residential mowing in my early 20's. Somehow, the "in and out, push-pull" technique fit in well with my other pursuits at the time. If the grass is wet or over-long, adjust as appropriate up to and including the use of a bag.

I’m with Sigmonkey. I mow 5-6 acres, two lawns and my meadows. I enjoy mowing, but focus on cutting 99.9% of the blades of grass. Runoff drains on to my property, so depending on rainfall, my focus is trying not to rut up the lawn or get stuck.
I don’t need it to look like a chessboard, but love the looks of some of the lawns that do.
Sometimes, mid summer, I’ll cut the grass really short, and watch the lawn change color!

My "lawn" is not conducive to stripes. It has also never seen fertilizer or weed killer. If it's greenish and prevents erosion, it gets to live. I'm in a semi-rural area so no HOA Karens to whinge.

Stripes and I change direction each week. I will also move over 12” - 18” regularly to avoid eventually getting ruts in the yard. It annoys the crap out of me to see ruts in yards made by people that mow the same way each time. I’ve got a 22” self propelled mower to use for areas that my lawn tractor cannot reach. If it’s too wet to use the lawn tractor I will use the 22” on the yard and go back to striping the next cut.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Oddly enough, both.

Stripes in the open front yard. Laps in the fenced-in back.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
mow it in stripes and then mow it perpendicular the next week.

That's what I do, at least in the front.

Yup - laps in the back. Vertical Stripes in the front.

quote:

Originally posted by PeteF:
Zamboni

This

My son often mows my yard and he appears to use no discernable pattern, and misses a lot of spots.

First mow of the year, laps.

Every other mow is stripes in alternating patterns.

Week 1 - East, West
Week 2 - North,south
Week 3 - Diagonal NE,SW
Week 4 - Diagonal, NW,SE

Alternating patterns prevents grass from 'laying' if you always follow the same pattern as explained by the local garden center. Visually I prefer that diagonal patterns to the N/S or E/W patterns.

I live in the country I just cut the damn grass

Timely discussion and very helpful. I bag my clippings but will forego that in the future. Mark123 - thanks for your input!

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
First mow of the year, laps.

Every other mow is stripes in alternating patterns.

Week 1 - East, West
Week 2 - North,south
Week 3 - Diagonal NE,SW
Week 4 - Diagonal, NW,SE

Alternating patterns prevents grass from 'laying' if you always follow the same pattern as explained by the local garden center. Visually I prefer that diagonal patterns to the N/S or E/W patterns.

I lived with my aunt for 2 years in college.
They did a perimeter lap, then diagonal cut the rest.
Looked nice, but man it was a pain to mow that way, even on their smaller front yard.
The way my front yard is laid out, I don't think a diagonal cut would be very doable.

That said, I do try to alternate N/S & E/W stripes for the front.
Back yard, depends on the day, sometimes striped, sometimes lapped. Have to break it into about 4 sections with how it's laid out & keeping the cut grass out of the pool as much as I can.

quote:

Originally posted by myrottiety:
laps in the back. Vertical Stripes in the front.

Is this the lawn-care version of a mullet?

I hope so, for my yard is rocking it, too!