Lawn full of weeds

[Michaela]

We have a garden full of weeds including stinging nettles, spiky weeds and others (I have no clue) in the UK

We have been advised to strim down, apply fertilised and lay turf. My concern is this won’t stop weeds growing through

We have tried weed killers and digging but there’s way too much to dig

Please any advice would be amazing. Ideally the quickest most effective way!

 

[Michaela]

 

[Chuck]

Mow as short as possible. Water thoroughly. Cover with plastic for about 2 months. Its called solarization. Google will have much more info.

 

[oneeye]

If you mow every week all Summer you will help a lot. When you let grass seed go to seed for one year you expect weeds the next 10 years. Never let your weeds go to seed friend and mow your grass every week.

 

[Susan BBPM]

Unless you're looking for a 'show' lawn just mow it and it'll be fine in our climate.

All the houses in my street were built on what was once pasture - so absolutely full of weeds. Thee were never any lawns laid. Some started out as bare earth that quickly became full of weeds. Everyone just mowed regularly and you honestly wouldn't know the difference from an established lawn laid with turf.

Some regularly weed, some apply weed killer. Those that leave the weeds and mow regularly (like me) have the most hard-wearing, lush looking lawns. It's mostly weed, but you can't tell the difference unless you look very closely.

If you skip a mowing you get a beautiful wildflower meadow full of daisies, buttercups, clover etc. Keep it trim and it's just like any other grass.

 

[l008com]

I was able to turn my lawn without "replacing" it with the following fairly simple process. Note that when I bought my house, the previous owners had all but given up on yardwork. I don't think had done any all year, and I signed papers on July 2nd (of many years ago).

So first is mow it and then keep it mowed. For the super tall stuff, you may want to use a weed wacker to cut it down.

Every year, I put down a fertilizer with weed preventer and crab grass pre-emergent. I put this down once in the early spring then again mid-summer. Crabgrass is a big problem here in New England, not sure about Old England

Then I try to overseed areas that need it in the middle of winter. My theory is that the seed will stay dormant. Then when the snow melts, it will get nice and germinated from that moister and start growing right away and be established enough before i put down my weed preventer.

I did that for two or three years and it really turned the whole yard around. It helped that one of the years was extremely rainy. Seems like lately, most summers in Massachusetts are droughts. But your yard looks small enough that it should be easy enough to water.

You can accelerate the process by digging up bad spots and pulling weeds by hand and planting new seed. But if you just do the basics and are in no rush, you'll be tipping the tables in favor of grass and over time, your lawn will start to really thrive.