What's the best way to clear rough ground?

Icey77

Good morning,

Part of our garden is rough ground with tall grass, weeds and poppies. What is the best way to clear this so that I can sow grass seed?

Do I need to cut it all down, or pull it up or chuck a load of weed killer at it? I honestly have no idea!

Thanks x

glasgowdan

Get a guy in with a strimmer to cut it short, then topdress with good topsoil and overseed. Hand weed anything that grows through until the grass establishes

I_have_spoken

Glyphosate, rotovate and rake, leave for 8 weeks and hoe-off any germinating seeds, lay turf in late summer.

TheGardener

If you are not adverse to chemicals - spray it with glysophate - but be warned, where now you have live weeds and grass, afterwards you will have dead weeds and grass - either way it will still need some physical effort to clear.
What would be helpful is if you could give us some idea of what you want to do after you have cleared it? Meadow? Lawn? Concrete (god forbid)? Flower beds?
If we know what the aim is - we can tailor the advice to suit.

enjoyyourshoes

Pigs

or

tracmaster with flail mower

Icey77

It's part the front garden and is a bit of an eyesore. I'm not averse to chemicals, I'm not a gardener so don't have a passionate view either way on the subject.

I'd like to grass it over so that I can cut it like I cut the other part of the garden, have it looking tidier in general and not that you might find a rusting pickup truck up on bricks in there!

I don't have the money for turf unfortunately, I do have a big tub of weed killer (perhaps Roundup, not sure as its in the shed) and a box of grass seed.

Thank you!

glasgowdan

You'll have to do some hard graft to clear and rake over the garden before seeding if you go down the weedkiller route

Tim_Mullis

I'd lay down a layer of old cardboard boxes and add a layer of manure. Dig in after a few months when everything is good and soft.