Creating a Labyrinth

Just for fun I wanted to have a go at making a temporary grass cut labyrinth. This would be a small project based on the width of the lawn mower.

All I wanted to do was to create a 4 circuit labyrinth by cutting it's pattern into longer grass. The shape can be maintained by weekly trimming at the lawnmower's lowest setting.

I found a design I liked on pinterest and could see it was made of concentric circles with turns here and there. So I drew it out roughly on paper.

Then I measured the width of the lawn mower (60cm) and calculated that the 4 radial paths would be a radius of 240cm + the 3 dividing walls (40cm each) would be 120cm giving an overall radius of 360cm and a diameter of 720cm, so not exactly tiny.

I put in a bamboo in the centre of the lawn and used a dusting of lime to mark out the concentric circles. Then I went back to my drawing and put in the bends to adjacent paths and carefully cut the grass.

The results were not as perfect as I would have liked but I should be able to tweek the results over the next couple of weeks.

It's position is close to the sitting room window so it is a feature to look out on and appreciate.

Other gardening trends are encouraging people to be creative and cut unusual patterns into their lawns; ellipses, circles, spirals, wavy borders, hearts and letters of the alphabet.

Martin D - May 2020

Martin (and Bernadette Mac) has also described designing and setting up the An Tobar Labyrinth... read more here.... Labyrinth at An Tobar, Co. Meath