OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Lawn Care & Maintenance lawn pics

No probs Ross, from the pics I can see you've really got your Scotty sorted....Well done that man!!

This is my lawn that I have been mowing with a victa imperial 14" for the last month or so. I can't belive the difference a cylinder mower makes!!!

I have just bought a 20" scotty so will be able to do the rest of the yard with it to. Pic one and two have been mowed with the cylinder for a bit over a month and the third photo is of the bottom that has only been done twice.

No stripes yet but not to sure why but I think I would prefer that it doesn't get them.

Cheers BDA

looking good BDA, yes you cant beat a cylinder mower I reckon. Re the stripes,yes personal choice I guess. I used to play allot of soccer and watch allot of English soccer on TV when I was a young fella & always wanted grass like pitches over there, hence my grass as it looks now. Gives me an interest and someting to do besides kids all of the time.
Cheers Ross

Hi BDA and rossf, the choice of a striped lawn is not an optional feature if you use a correctly set-up cylinder mower...It comes with the territory, so to speak.
What is occurring during the cut is initially the front roller, and has 2 functions; it controls the height of cut and it lays down the grass in front of it, which then causes the grass to spring up in the path of the front edge of the bed-knife blade and then precision scissor cut by the rotating cylinder reel.

It then is immediately rolled flat again by the weight of the machine on the rear roller.
This then has the mowed strip with the grass laying down in one direction. When you mow in the opposite direction the grass is laying down opposite to the first pass....causing the lawn stripes.
You can get the same effect on a pile carpet with a vacuum cleaner....

BDA, the reason your lawn is not striping much now can be the result of the lawn, which has previously been cut by a rotary mower will be getting used to being cylinder mown, and will soon settle in to being manicured. Another reason may be the cylinder to bed-knife adjustment, or it could mean time for a reel and bed-knife sharpen.

Don't worry if you don't like the stripe effect, once you water the lawn or just naturally the grass stands up again, the stripes will tend to disappear...
Personally, I like the effect, it makes your lawn stand out in the street...and I like the guy next door trying to get the same effect with his rotary!!

Thanks guys I still have a long way to go but really happy so far

Well I know for a fact that the cylinder and bedknife are blunt on the victa so you might be on to something there deejay.

Please tell me you don't try and get the carpet stripes going

On the stripes disappearing, do they only stay for a day or so after mowing???

Also now when I look at the photos I can just make out the stripes in there.

Hi BDA, and no, I don't try and get the carpet stripes effect going.... I was just trying to explain that carpet pile reacts in a similar way to grass when moved in different directions.
As for how long the effect lasts, a lot depends on the type of grass, and the moisture content also would most probably be a factor, and of course the machine itself, with weight and cutting height.

My lawn is kikuyu, and the stripes last about 2 days.

rossf - that is looking tops mate! QLD Blue Couch is the bomb IMHO.

I use an SB 17" Mod 45 and have QLD Blue Couch.

My stripes are very apparent for 1-2 weeks and then fade out after that if I don't mow. Different grasses will take the stripes to different degrees. The broader the leaf and longer the grass, the less of a stripe/shorter stripe retention you will get. If you don't want stripes at all with a cylinder, you could mow the yard in one direction, but this is very tedious because you have to drag to mower back to the start of every run.

Generally, I mow 1-2 times a week in summer and then once a week the rest of the year. In winter, I may drop back to fortnightly if it gets really cold (by QLD standards) because it is just a waste of fuel to get one catcher worth of clippings from mowing ~700m2 of grass.

I posted the following in my Intro thread, but here is is again on how I care for my lawn...

I fertilize 2-3 time a year with urea (which gives a lot of extra leaf growth) and let that have a week or so to get kicked off - you know it has because the grass grows ~1" every 2 days so you have to mow 3 times a week! Once it has kicked off, I spray it with a growth retardant which slows the long blade growth so you only have to mow once a week, but it makes the grass really thicken up.

The only watering I do is when I apply the urea - if you don't, you will burn your whole yard - I normally fertilize in the pissing down rain so I don't have to water. Other than that, the only care it gets is mowing, broad leaf weed/target weed spraying for nut grass or mullumbimby as required, spray for lawn grubs as required - both of which isn't very often. Luckily no bindii yet. Because the grass is so short and thick, most weeds just don't have a snowflakes chance in hell of establishing. The blue couch has also taken over most of the footpath out the front of one of the neighbours places too - green couch just doesn't handle the constant short cutting.

The other things is you should raise you cut height a bit now for the colder months too...not too much...I find 3-4mm is plenty. Just give the couch a bit more leaf for the shorter days of sun.

I only change direction of mowing when the grass starts to develop as 'wave' in the cut - this happens maybe 3-4 times a year. It is like rolling pastry, if you keep rolling back and forth in one direction, you will start to get 'waves' which are an uneveness in the thickness. Easily fixed by mowing at 90 degrees to you normal cutting direction for 1 or two mows - and you end up with checkerboard patterns. The only other time I mow in a different direction is if I want to change the pattern to checkers or diamonds - I would normally only do this if I have a daytime BBQ at my place...always gets the praise going.

I generally don't top dress, but now that the grass is well established and after all the rain during summer, there are a few little dips and bumps I would like to smooth out. I have used a sandy loam before and was rather unimpressed by it. Steve Jones Landscaping in Brisbane has the most amazing top dressing I have ever scene/used. It is a bit more expensive, but it contains heaps of organic matter. I used a meter of it after running some ag pipe and drains in my back yard during summer when the summer rain highlighted some drainange issues, and it made the grass it was applied to go totally ballistic!

With the cooler weather now, my grass has dropped of from its best significantly and this is only over the period of ~1 month. I will take some pics after I mow on the weekend.


Ben.

Looking good bdaearth...especially around the house.

The bottom level looks like it could do with a fert once the weather warms up again.

Ben.