getting rid of weeds and getting a good lawn

i have recently bought a house with a garden, the main area of lawn and planting area is just over grown with weeds and a very thin grassed area.

today i sprayed all the borders and planting areas with weed killer, which had the most weeds in and i also sprayed and weeds (mostly docks) within the would be grassed area.

My plan is to dig over the whole lot and remove as much builders rubbel as possible, and add some builders sand as the soil seems quite heavy (to my untrained eye) then sew grass seeds within the area i want grassed and also leave the existing grass to hopefully grow back through. my questions are

how long should i leave it before i dig it over, wait until all the weeds have died or will the fact the weed killer is within the weed be enough to ensure it's demise.

and does my plan sound sensible, any thing else i should be doing?

(i can't afford to turf it)

thanks in advance

 

Hi

I would wait a week or two and let the weed killer do its job. Then start digging it over and remove all weed roots, i would dig down around 12 inch to remove all roots. If you say that your soil is quite heavy i would use sharp sand and not builders sand to improve drainage (bad for the grass!!!)
Depending on what you want to use your lawn for ie Kids,pets i would use a quality grass seed hard wearing, i used Canada green and it very green and hardy to drought too.
You can get canada green from argos 3 for price of 2!!! Remember to put some down to stop the birdies from eating all your seed :eek:
Hope this helps
Sean

 

Is Canada Green also hardy to poor soil conditons, mowgley?

 

JamesC - is it a newish house? Builders so often put grass on completely c*** ground, with load s of rubbish underneath. If that's the case, you'll need to do a bit more, so let us know if that's your problem too!

 

sorry i meant sharp sand and no it's not a new house