Do I need to use weedkiller?

Hello, I am a new gardener and my garden was full of weed. I have cultivated the land and it looks fine now. But as you can see the weed is quite horrible in summer so my question is will the weeds grow up again in the summer? Do I need to use weedkiller before sow grass seeds? Thanks

 

I think weedkiller at the moment won't do anything, because there's nothing for it to kill. There will be lots of seeds and probably roots remaining there though. When you sow the lawn, weeds will come up as well as grass.

Weeds don't like being mown though. If you mow regularly, the grass will keep growing and the weeds will give up. You will need to patient. You will still likely get dandelions, daisies and buttercups.

If you want a bowling green perfect lawn, with nothing present that isn't a blade of grass, you will likely need to use poison.

 

Its going to be a couple of months before its warm an dry enough to sow grass seeds and the Weeds will have some time to grow up a bit so you will have chance to remove/ kill them.
If using a weekkiller use one thats non persistent in the soil and goes down into the roots, for your use probably a glyphosate based one may be best, used a few weeks before you sow.

 

Thank you both. I am thinking about the timeline. I live in Scotland and someone told me I can only sow the grass seed after the second week of May. I should be able to see the weeds grow up in March/April, so there is enough time in between if I want to use weedkiller.
Can I sow the grass seed a bit earlier? for example, I use weedkiller in early April and sow the grass seed in the middle April? I have no idea how long it should wait between weedkiller and seeding grass.

Also do I need to cultivate the land again before seeding? I assume the soil will be harder 2 months later. Also can you tell what are the names of the weeds?

 

I agree that glyphosate is your best option.
It is only absorbed by leaves that are actively growing, so you'll need to wait a while for that to happen.
One spraying should kill all the weeds that have leaves.
Glyphosate becomes inactive on contact with soil, so it doesn't stop seeds from germinating, so a 2nd spraying may be needed 3-4 weeks after the 1st spraying if you see new weeds appearing.

You can sow/plant as soon as 24 hours after spraying if necessary.

Glyphosate takes a couple of weeks to work, so don't expect to see any changes in the sprayed weeds for a week or so.

 

Those sowing times are ok, it really depends on when the weather becomes milder and less wet. If we have an earlier and warmer spring then you could bring things forward a little.

Your ground looks rather fluffy and uneven so have a look at this video, and others, to see the way to prepare your area.
Looks like you are going to make a path down the middle ?

 

thank you, i will follow your suggestions.

 

thank you! watched the video, very very good, i am going to follow this one when seeding!!

Yes, there is a path by slabs in between, as you can see below, this is an old one. it is a bit lower than the grass, any suggestions for the path? there is an edge on each side by slabs but merged by the soil so can't see it from the pics.

 

Try spray on weed killer and see what happens. The label says it neutralises on contact with soil.

 

When your rotivated soil has been raked and settled etc it will be quiet a bit lower and the path probably more exposed.
Depends if you want a dead straight path or something a bit curved / cottagey would seem more suited to the lay of your land.

Flags are easy to re-lay and adjust using sharp sand or you could look at things like bark , gravel or slate chippings etc if you have decent edging either sides.

 

We will need some closer photos in order to identify your weeds. But also, you can do it yourself by uploading photos to a site such as https://identify.plantnet.org/, or try google lens. Not always fully accurate, but should do a good job on the common ones if you get a good clear close-up photo.

 

I think I can see ground elder in the weeds. It is very difficult to get rid of. Every bit of root will need digging out which is almost impossible. It dies down in the winter. Then when growth starts spray with glyphosate but it will probably need 2 sprayings.

There is also a wild hardy geranium but that is easy to pull up. The rest isn't clear enough to see.