how to complete wasteland transformation

[tricky123]

hi all

am new here so please forgive any faux pas/rubbishness/ignorance

i'm not a gardener by any means but have managed to transform my lawn from a wilderness to something approaching semi respectability by ley man's standards.

we bought our house last spring ('10) and garden was a wilderness so have managed to clear it of wood/fire scorch marks and flatten then sow some grass seed into the lawn to make it half decent.

the new grass has taken quite well and combines with the old grass reasonably ok.

however there are still patches in the lawn where old weeds/nettles/old shrubs/plants grow thickly or bare ground is evident and visible.

what's the best way of sorting this out so the weeds etc are killed, the new grass stays healthy and the bare bits are thickened up with more green?

all i want is a flat-ish, green lawn...nothing more, nothing less.

obviously its october now, so do i need to leave it till the spring and kill the weeds off as they grow, or is there anything i can do over the winter to kill weeds/nettles which are now cut down by the last mow of the summer?

i take it its not worth using the left over grass seed during the winter months or should i just bung it on and see what happens?

all advice very welcome and i'd be most grateful for any thoughts/experience/words of wisdom.

many thanks in advance

[trader4]

Bare ground, assuming the soil is OK, you plant seed. Most weeds you can kill with a broadleaf weed killer for lawns which will kill the weeds, not the grass. Undesirable grasses, vines, etc, probably best to kill with Roundup or another glyphosate type killer that will kill them, but also grass. Then those areas you can reseed after you've removed the dead stuff. Can reseed a week after applying glyphosate.

Shrubs you have to either dig out or cut down completely

The herbicides will work now, but the weeds need to be actively growing, so don't wait too long. The cooler it gets, the less active they are and the harder to kill.

Not sure of the temps right now in the UK, but grass needs soil temps in the 50s to germinate. That usually means daytime temps in the 60s, 50s at night. It also needs time to establish before winter. So, here in the NYC area we are at the end of the window. If I had a few small bare spots, I'd take a chance and seed those now. But I would not attempt a lawn renovation, ie seeding large areas now.

You should also put down a Fall fertilizer which will give it a good boost.

[tricky123]

hey, many thanks for the answer...advice much appreciated

will get to it...and look forward to next summer when it should be looking much better

thanks again!