Mowing Pattern

[Pulleye16]

After a few cocktails, someone made a comment on my mowing pattern at the cabin which then turned into an hour long conversation...best way to mow your lawn.

So, how do you cut your lawn (larger lots)? I prefer the zamboni method. It works great on traditional riding mowers when you can't make sharp turns. No way am I doing a diamond pattern cut unless its an 1/4 or less.

...but we all know, the only thing that truly matters is that whatever method you use...a beer in hand is mandatory!

[glenn57]

my moms parents where anal about cutting there grass differnet direction every time. my doofy neighbor is even worse.

me........meh......... i cut it in whatever way trips my trigger at the moment. ......and the grass keep growing and looks just as good..........with adequate moisture!!!!!1

[Dotch]

Mowing pattern? We don't need no stinking pattern!  Our lawn is so cut up into pieces with a house in the middle, ~ 60 individual trees & bushes, a curved driveway on a slope, ditches and a road cut that it's like farming 20 acres in the middle of a hillside woods divided into 5 or 6 fields, with very little of it being long, straight runs. In other words, lawnmowing hell. The zero turn helps but it sucks on the steepest slopes. Trying to remember which direction you mowed any part of it last time would be an exercise in futility. To top it off, some of it's bromegrass & quackgrass so it grows back ~ twice as fast as the bluegrass does. Sometimes I re-mow that part in a few days to keep it more even. I do have a thing about usually blowing the grass away from the next pass however. If you don't, especially with that juicy brome and quack, it tends to build up more quickly under the deck. If you don't keep the deck cleaned out, it doesn't mow as smoothly and wears the blades out faster. Still recovering after a rib injury from the last deck cleaning. Don't like doing that any more often than I have to.   

[roony]

More gin needed.

[HD]

I just drive around in circles with a beer in my hand. When the kids were younger and home, I had them trained..... If dad drove by and pitched an empty, the next round they were standing out there with a new cold one. 

[mike89]

about like Dotch and HD for me...  the only I like to do too is blow the cut grass away so as to not keep recutting it also... 

[markn]

I'll switch each time. West to East, North to South, NW to SE and NE to SW. Got zero turn and just a few trees in the front of the house. Backyard gets the HD treatment, go in circles till it's done. About three and a half acers total, 40 trees in on the back 1/3. Have to make the front look nice for Mike when he's on the way to Aldi's. 

[mike89]

ok dats funny!!!   haven't taken that route in over a month, I best do so next week!!!!   

[deadeye]

I make a couple passes around the area I'm cutting to make a "header" then diagonally one way or another. Using zero-turn I start on one end and go back and forth until I run out of grass to cut.  Lots of trees and stuff in the way so things change every time I mow. Probably one of the few but no beer involved when I mow. I might get a MUI as I drive about a quarter mile on the road to do my son's yard. 

[Pulleye16]

Always curious how people with zero turns mow…I mean, do you wear a beer helmet? Lol.

[tangle tooth]

      Great idea, you have. Speaking of Zamboni. Rather than a board brush, you could extend a string trimmer to get your edges or under fences. Get on it.
      I do use the Zamboni pattern. I used to drive one.

[Bobberineyes]

I dabble with different directions from time to time. Funny though, when I had the old yardman rider I screwed a hard rubber strip on the backside of the deck and that striped the yard nicely,  drove my neighbor nuts since his high binder commercial grade Deere wouldn't as much, and I made sure I angled it at his windows!! Lol.

[Gunner55]

A lot of golf course experience here so I usually use the markn method. Unless it really needs cutting & I don't have a lot of time. Then it's often whatever pattern I think is quickest.

[LPS]

In the yard I change directions.  Out by the road it is back and forth until it is done. 

[roony]

I'm usually just happy to get it hacked off.