Messy, weedy lawn

[ineedaknittedhat]

I have a small front lawn which is five years old. It was laid on poor soil which I've been trying to build up with bags of peat and growmore.

It's poor round the edges as the soil is too shallow and it's full of weeds. The weeds are: dandelions, some sort of creeping trefoil, clover, moss and cabbagey looking things with the occasional thistle. I don't mind the clover, but hate the others.

I dig them out, but more come. I've sprayed them today with weed killer you can use on a lawn. I dislike chemicals, but I'm desperate.

Is there anything anyone can recommend for building up the lawn's strength, getting rid of the weeds and should I make a stone chipping border where the grass is too thin?

What way does your lawn face?

I love lawns like this. Mine is full of all kinds of stuff, clover, daisies, dandelions, moss, tiny little blue flowers etc. Looks great! Just mow it regularly.

One option is to dig it out completely to about 10ins down. If it's a new build it's probably full of builders rubble and impregnated with building chemicals.
Fill it with topsoil and new seed.
Hard work and expensive but if a perfect lawn is your holy grail that's probably your answer unless you go for artificial grass. That works too but you will have to hoover it in front of the neighbours

We sacked off a grass lawn at the front and seeded chamomile instead. It's needed minimal weeding (which is easier to do than with grass), smells and looks beautiful, and only really needs mowing once a year (although needs edging once a month). Might be worth a consideration?

Our back lawn (grass) is a mess after being neglected last year. It'll be a hands and knees job to dig out the weeds in that one. I'm also not fussed about clover or daisies, but the rest need to go...

It's south facing.

I'm not bothered about it looking really nice, but just half way reasonable would be great 😁

I don't mind the weeds that have little flowers, but the chunky fleshy ones and thistles are horrible.

We have some chamomile in the back garden, but it's not doing much.

There is builders rubble underneath as dh had to dig it out to make me a flower bed.

Give the weedkiller a while to work (it should tell you how long on the instructions), and then cut the grass frequently - twice a week at least all through the growing season. Constantly cutting the tops off weeds will weaken them, but won't harm the grass.