Naptime DIY: How to mow your lawn in a diagonal pattern

Last summer a neighbor commented on the front yard.  “Hey, did you cross cut your front yard”, he said.  Honestly speaking we didn’t know what we did; we were just bored of cutting it in the same square pattern.  “Yup, we sure did”, I said.  The neighbor commented that it looked better than usual so I figured I should keep doing whatever it is we did to the front yard.

Since then we’ve done bit of research and learned that all we did was mow the yard in a diagonal pattern instead of parallel lines.  The effect however was much stronger and impactful than the regular way we mowed.

Mowing the yard in a simple parallel fashion is quick and easy.

However, with just a little more effort your yard can have the illusion of being semi-professionally maintained.  We mowed two quick exterior paths along the exterior of the yard and then mowed down the middle.  When one half of the yard was finished we went to the largest swath of grass and continued doing the other side.

In that picture we also started killing the weeds on the side of the yard with white vinegar.  The lack of weeds and the mowing pattern is the only difference in the two photos.  Both of the photos had the grass clippings bagged as well. Does the diagonal one look better to you also?

We mow diagonally in different directions every other time now.  Alternating the mowing pattern is healthier for the lawn and helps ease any monotony that you experience from doing the same task.

It’s not a true ‘cross cutting’ or even a ‘striping’ effect, but it’s simple, doesn’t require any new tools and makes the neighbors notice.

 

As a stay at home dad I miss having the spare time to fix things. Even though the child is my full time job, things still break or need a fix in the house. Sometimes the repair will be something that I can easily complete and other times it’s a repair that I simply should’ve paid to have it done.  Regardless, I’ll write it up here in hopes that you may be able to gauge what you can do and when you need to call in for help. The series is called, Naptime DIY because the tasks are hopefully accomplished in 60 minutes, which is a good naptime period.