Best weed killer for a new lawn

Hi everyone,

I'm new to gardening and joined this forum to get some advice and best methods for getting rid of the weeds and laying turf done correctly

I have attached some photos of the weeds and would like your advice on how to best tackle this lawn project.

Which is the best weed killer to use?

Would you recommend I use some kind if fertiliser after before laying turf?? If so which one?

Pesticides?? Which is the best to use?

Any other things I should consider for this project?

Kind regards

Shiv

 

I would use round up, after they have all died in a couple of weeks, scrape them up, remove the largest stones and level and firm your ground ready. Get it nice and flat. Preparation now will pay in the long run.

 

Welcome to GC Shiv. Be aware though that Round-up contains glyphosate and it will kill just about anything it touches, just in case there's any plants you want to keep.

 

Lot of work to replace what you have with either seed or turf (same soil preparation for either, turf more instant but more expensive, either will have to be watered throughout the summer if "laid" now)

You sure that what you have can't be rectified? If it is fairly level, and there is some grass within the weeds (looks from your photo as though there is, but harder to tell at the back where weeds are thickest) I would cut down the tall grown, wait for it to grow back, and then put Weed and Feed on it. It would help if you also over-seeded it with new grass seed too, but a bit late for that (although if you water it twice a week after over seeding that would probably work OK)

 

Looks like you need some heavy duty tools for the job. Clear out everything thats weed. Strip it all down to bare soil then add a layer of fresh peat and then it will be easier to maintain.

 

As a lawn??

 

Not the whole lawn. Looking at the pics, some of it is tiled. Only the parts where there is turf. From my experience, it's better to remove the top layer rather than just cutting it back because that way there are no weed roots left and those little blighters can come back fast!

 

I'm confused. The O/P wants a lawn, I don't see how what you are suggesting works towards achieving that??

 

To be fair to myself, the OP didn't specifically say that they wanted to lawn the whole back garden only that they wanted some advice on how to go about it. Plus they said "best methods for getting rid of the weeds and laying turf done correctly". They didn't say they wanted to remove those slab tiles as well. So one would be forgiven for thinking they meant only the over grown parts at the back and sides. Hence the last picture showing just the back overgrown part.

Honestly my best advice is to get a garden trimmer, you don't want a light weight one here though although it will still do the job you will be replacing the cutting chord a lot. Best to get an industrial one and some sheers of course. Get rid of all those brambles and thorns and bring it right down to the bare minimum.

If you are wanting to lawn the whole garden then do that and then remove the slab tiles and level the whole garden out as much as possible. Now you will definitely want to put down some fresh peat and you can either lay it with grass rolls which is much quicker or you can sprinkle down grass seed and grow you own (much longer but cheaper). Just try to keep the birds of it until the seeds start to take!

 

Well you can try, your local garden center for starters JWK. Or there's Lowe’s, Home Depot and Ace Hardware. Lowe's sells a 3-cubic foot compressed bale of sphagnum peat moss for $8.96. Also you could contact your local nursery, garden center or landscape supply company to purchase peat moss bales. It's really not that hard to come by.

 

Worth you registering a trade account with LBS?
http://www.lbsbuyersguide.co.uk/

AFAIK there are no specific restrictions (they let me have one after all!) but you only get discounted prices for "quantity", so as-broad-as-long if you only buy in ones. However, the trade site does have some things not available on the retail site - like composts / chemicals that the Trade use.

200ltr Shamrock Moss Peat £21.50 (5 @ £19.35)
http://www.lbsbuyersguide.co.uk/growing-media/composts/200ltr-shamrock-moss-peat.html

120ltr Fine Grade Moss Peat £12.70 (5 @ £9.50)
http://www.lbsbuyersguide.co.uk/growing-media/composts/fine-grade-moss-peat.html