Should I just pay someone to do it for me?

[UnicornBoom]

Moved into a new house about 3 months ago. Before planting anything I decided to let it grow for a couple of months to see what was there. Looks like the landlord just mowed over all the weeds as they are rooted very, very deep (lots of tap roots, just pulled one that was 1.5 feet and annoyingly it snapped - thought I had it!). I'm a lone parent to a 4 year old and have very little time on my hands. I work full time. I just want the garden weeded and nice before summer, and so I can start planting. Once that's done I can go out every day and pull anything that pops up. Should I just pay someone to do it for me? It's a tiny garden but I don't have much money and know gardeners are expensive. Argh! I'm ruining my grass trying to get them up!

Just to add, I'm not fussed about the occasional weed here and there, it's just that my lawn is covered in them. Am I likely going to need to re plant some grass? (as you can tell, I am new to gardening and haven't a clue what I'm doing!)

45cm roots? Really.

To be honest I’d just get this

Weed Puller, Stand Up Weeder Hand Tool, Long Handle Garden Weeding Tool with 4 Claws, Hand Weed Hound Weed Puller, Standup Weed Root Pulling Tool and Picker, Grabber 3-Stage Adjustable https://amzn.eu/d/gh51h0Z

and sprinkle some grass seed down.

Yes, really! Where I've pulled it up there is no grass growing for a good 40cm

Have you got a photo? When I moved into my new build the garden was a mess, just overgrown weeds and grass.

It took a few years but with gardens you just do a bits and pieces as and when you have time/inclination.

I've been here nearly 6 years now and the garden is lovely, I'm a single parent and couldn't justify the cost of a gardener.

The cheaper but not particularly environmentally friendly solution would be to to roundup the whole lot and then re-seed with grass seed...

If it's been that neglected, my worry would be that unless you got the turf/topsoil lifted and replaced (which isn't very eco), you couldn't guarantee a gardener would get it to a state where you could keep on top of it with a few minutes every day. Your soil will be full of weed seeds. My garden isn't tiny, but I moved here in 2018 and I am still battling dandelions in the lawn. Sounds stupid, but could you not just live with weeds for now, and style it out?

If you really do want to try a weed-free lawn you could go down the weedkiller/new turf route (and turf isn't so expensive as that), but it'd be much nicer for insects etc. if you don't.

Bees need dandelions; please reconsider eradicating them.

Are you trying to create flower beds for planting in, or to sort out the grass? Photo would really help too.

Bees need a range of plants year round - here the bees are particularly enjoying my lords-and-ladies and ignoring the dandelions; they loved the crocuses last month and I am sure are looking forward to the persicaria later in the year. The whole bees-need-dandelions thing that runs every spring has got a bit out of hand. That said, a bit of variety in your lawn is a lovely thing, I think.

A bit like getting to grips with an untidy house - don’t try to tackle the whole thing, choose a small area and concentrate on that. Gradually the order will spread over the whole garden.

A large reason for my passion for flowers and interest in botany was my parents’ lawn - a great list of wildflowers growing in it. And moss, and even as a young child I was able to recognise that there were different mosses growing in different places, including a delicate one that grew only in holes in the bank at one end.

I can't cope with gardening or afford a gardener. I ended up throwing wildflower seed bombs and packets of wildflower seeds all over my lawn. I pull out the ragwort when that appears but leave the rest as is.

I'm trying to sort out the grass. Thankfully the beds only had a few weeds which were easy to pull out from the root. I'm a planting lots of flowers there and have lots of pots that I plan on filling.

do you need a weed free lawn?

Not completely but it's pretty much covered and there are quite a lot of prickly ones

In general, grass likes being mown and weeds don't. So with a couple of years of regular mowing the grass will out-compete the weeds to an extent.

Our lawn used to be mainly weeds and clover, but last year we paid for a guys to come round 4 time a year to sort the lawn and it has never looked so good - no weeds, very lush, the only problem is it grows loads! I don't know if that's more affordable, but it cost us around £85 a go (we have a large garden so I imagine a small one would be less) but for us it has been worth it, and no upheaval at all - the weedkiller he uses only kills the weeds, not the lawn.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/prevention-protection/weeds-non-chemical-control

Basically I’d use some of these methods but I’d also use some weed killer. Persistently pulling them up with a tool like I linked earlier will make them give up growing.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. My lawn is infested with weeds, daisies, yarrow, lady's smock, buttercups, hawkbit, including the orange one, fox and cubs. They look rather lovely in high summer and are covered with insects.