The Handy Ryobi Mower Attachment That Lets You Stripe Your Lawn As You Mow

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If you’ve ever walked through a suburban neighborhood before, you might have noticed that some of the houses have a distinctive feature on their lawns. Specifically, the lawn appears to be striped, with alternating light and dark shades not unlike the stripes of an American flag. Lawn striping is achieved by rolling over the grass with a heavy cylinder, matting it down in alternating directions. The practice of lawn striping doesn’t bring much in the way of practical benefit to homeowners, but it looks very classy and professional, not to mention reminiscent of the kinds of clean lawns you see in a baseball stadium.

Many professional lawn care services offer lawn striping packages, but if you prefer to care for your lawn yourself, you will need a special accessory for your lawn mower to achieve uniform stripes or a dedicated tool like a hover mower. If you happen to use one of Ryobi’s battery-powered Smart Trek or Self-Propelled lawn mowers, the brand has the right accessory on offer to achieve that professional vibe: the Ryobi Lawn Mower Striper.

The Ryobi Lawn Striper, available exclusively at Home Depot for $99.00, is a rolling mechanism designed to be fitted to the back of your Ryobi battery-powered lawn mower. The Lawn Striper can be clipped right onto any 20- or 21-inch mower in Ryobi’s stable, and is designed to be attached or detached with minimal effort. It also works whether you have a bagger attachment or not.

As you push your Ryobi lawn mower to cut your grass, the Lawn Striper rolls along behind it, flattening your grass down into a clean, uniform stripe. The roller weighs about 8.5 pounds normally, but if you want to create deeper, more defined stripes in your lawn, you can increase its weight by filling it with water and sand. Just fill the drum with either using the included funnel, and you can get as much as 15 pounds of water weight or 25 pounds of sand weight.

While the Ryobi Lawn Striper is meant to be fairly easy to use, it comes with some usage recommendations from Ryobi itself to achieve the best results. First, Ryobi recommends determining your desired focal point for those looking at your lawn. Choose a spot with the sun at your back to get the best appearance from the stripes. Second, mow a perimeter around your yard before striping, sectioning off obstacles. Finally, if you want stripes, don’t cut the grass too short, as longer grass lays flat better for neater stripes, though grass that’s too long might be hard for your mower to cut. Ryobi also recommends taking your local temperature and grass type into consideration, as some grasses and seasons don’t mesh well with striping.