Why wont my lawn stay striped???

[airbrakes]

As we all know, an englishman takes great pride in his stripy lawn. However, I am somewhat baffled as to why I cant get my lawn as good as next door's. The house next door is maintained by the groundsman who does all the communal lawns in our development. He comes and does it all once a week. I mow ours once a week. He has treated it with something or other. I have judiciously applied weed and feed to ours several times. I have a 41cm Hayter with a rear roller. He has a 56cm Hayter with a rear roller.

So why, 3 days after cutting, are my stripes (right) faded to almost imperceptible whilst theirs (left) are still beautifully crisp?

[airbrakes]

Thanks guys. I will leave it to get longer and cut it a setting higher in future (how do people with bowling green lawns get theirs so shot But so lush?). I'll also whack a sprinkler on it maybe once a week with this weather and I'll ask the contractor if he has any hints. I dont think sabotage will go down terribly well

Aponting - thanks, we do try to keep it looking nice. It's a barn conversion in the middle of nowhere, lovely and peaceful ad tranquil

Edited by airbrakes on Wednesday 10th July 15:21

[ChemicalChaos]

Well, better late than never.....

Here is a photo of the lawn from 2 weeks ago, again 3 days after I had cut it. Since the advice on this thread, it has been cut a notch or two higher on the mower, and has been scarified to an inch of its life over the winter which removed an extraordinary quantity of moss!



As such, it is generally looking a lot more lush and healthy, but still the stripes do not stay for more than a few days.

I'm thinking its time to add some bags of weight to the back of the mower, to roll the grass more heavily? It does seem that the bigger, and therefore heavier, the mower is the better the stripes it leaves.

I do keep meaning to sharpen the blade on the mower, it is probably completely rounded by now as it also gets used for some industrial groundskeeping on very tough grass and weeds....

Edited by ChemicalChaos on Friday 18th July 22:24

[ChemicalChaos]

ManFromDelmonte said:

Anyway Matt, what's the news?

Not much. Still striping faintly, as it needs a good fertilising. I keep nagging the parents to buy a lawn spreader, as last time I tried fertilisng by scattering it from the packet, I ended up with lots of lush green zigzags up and down the lawn

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

True. Real mowers have a V8 as a minimum, preferably supercharged.

Dont be silly, chap.

Real mowers look like this:

[ChemicalChaos]

Stu R said:

Christ, color me glad I don't have a real mower then, mowing my lawn with that would be slower than painting the forth road bridge.

Nothing runs like a cheap, crudely made Champion lawnmower sprayed green and rebadged to sell at a higher price

EFA

Anyway, larger versions are available for the gentleman with a larger lawn / groundskeeper with a football pitch