A Lawn Mowing Trick to Upgrade Landscaping

Give your lawn the pro treatment with a checkerboard pattern. If you’re trying to sell your home, taking the time to mow the lawn twice in a checkerboard pattern can make the landscape stand out.

You’ll often spot the checkerboard or stripe pattern on baseball and athletic fields. But how can you do it yourself? Essentially, you’ll start by mowing parallel to a sidewalk or driveway. Then, you’ll mow the lawn a second time but in a perpendicular direction to create that checkerboard pattern. You can finish it off by mowing a strip around the edges to frame it.

The stripe look is achieved because the lawn mower blades bend the grass in different directions to appear darker or lighter depending on what direction you mowed it.