Advice please re turning flowerbed into lawn.

I have admitted defeat and decided that I just cannot cope with all my large flower beds so am in the process of turning a large 1 (about 30ft squareish) into lawn. I live in the country surrounded by fields and lots of weedy areas so my current lawns are really short meadow! with probably ALL the weeds known to man in them...but they look ok when mown. The bed I am going to seed has already been weedkilled which got most of the horrors out of it, however there is still lots of aged Rosebay Willow and Ground Elder which seem to have survived the weedkiller. Am I right in thinking, once I seed the area next season and get mowing once the grass is strong enough that the "resident" horrors will eventually give up the ghost? If not I'll have to dig down about 5 ft to get all the roots out and will probably expire!
I was also wondering as my soil is pretty acid, if it would be worth asking my neighbouring farmer for a bag of the lime he spreads on his fields and put that on the ground now/Spring? prior to sowing. Hoping someone can help. Thanks.

 

The Ground Elder will succumb to regular mowing, however it may not give the grass a chance - so you may have to pull the leaves off in Spring so the grass doesn't have to compete with it.

It would be better to Autumn sow grass ideally - it would get established into the late Autumn and the weeds wouldn't bother - and then there would have been less competition in the Spring as the grass would have been more advanced.

Too late for Autumn sowing now, so the grass will need a bit more help in the Spring.

 

Thanks very much Kirsten, agree with Autumn sowing, but was putting up a glasshouse (2nd hand given to me by friend) and didn't have time to clear the area until now. Understand what you mean about dealing with the Ground Elder. The Rosebay is worse than the Ground Elder, do you think if I pull up what I can, it'll disappear in time?

 

Sorry, I don;t know what Rosebay Willow is (or maybe I just don't know it by name ...)

 

Rosebay Willowherb....knowing my spelling could well be wrong!

 

That weed with the pretty pink flowers that seed everywhere? Is that what you mean?

 

Yes, that hell of a plant introduced from the Far East I believe which now is the bane of many gardeners including me! The roots go down about 5 ft and I've yet to manage to rid myself of the horror altho did have some success with crushing the stems and then painting on Roundup mixed with Fairy Liquid. when the wretched stuff got in amoungst a heather bed