Lawn maintenance

Grass cutting is an utter bore, which is why the first thing I did with my new garden was spray off the turf with Napalm. The average UK citizen who owns a lawn has an unhealthy obssession with striped and scalped sward.
Lets look at how grass grows. Unlike most other plants and trees who grow from the tip, grass grows from the base. The culm or rooty base of grass is usually pale cream or yellow and without Chlorophyll. Thats the stuff that makes the green bits of plants green. If you cut a blade of grass really short you will reveal the yellow base. Hence during the summer here in Blighty most lawns outside peoples homes are shaved yellow squares. Delightful! Not!
Raise the height of cut on your mowers please. Amenity turf should be maintained at about 2" not 1/2 an inch. Be honest with yourself you probably have a broad leaved grass mix, which, from observations I've made over the last 42 years of life, is 80% weed filled so will never look like the greens at a golf course or bowling green. Have you watched the grounds person at your local sports facility. I live opposite the local village cricket club, and those guys are out there on their sit on mowers and push along Ransome cylinder cutters three times a week. Bugger that, what kind of life is that? To keep a bog standard lawn looking half decent you need to cut it at least once a week during the months from March to October. Remember that grass never stops growing it only slows down during the winter. So a mild winter will have you dragging the mower out of the shed, if you want to avoid that awfull heavey slog around the sod in late spring because you left it too long between cuts. I take great delight in sitting in my garden listening to the surrounding neighbours battling with strimmers and heaving rotary mowers back and forth through dozens of square meters of lank tuffted grass. Then a month later they'll all be out doing the same again. The sounds of an English summer, Black birds setting out their territories, grass cutters humming and mower pushers cursing as they mow over the cable/ a frog/ a dog turd. Delete as appropriate or inappropriate.
What I'm trying to say is if you insist on keeping that square of green boring and time consuming sod out side the house then stop deluding yourself that it is ever going to look like a golf course. Stop cutting it so short and forget stripes. Dont just take my word for it ask any garden expert and they'll say raise the height of cut on your mower.