Weeding advice for a novice

[teanntoastinbed]

New rental and my flower beds have gone insane and are overcome with weeds. I want to smarten them up for the weekend. What's the best course of action? The ground is so hard, so don't think digging is an option. Any top tips to smarten this up quickly? I can cut it all back, but I assume it will just grow back! Picture for reference.

Are there any plants in ther that you want to keep? You could just stick a layer of cardboard down over the top and then mulch it with a thick layer of bark chippings.

Just cut the grass, and tell anyone who asks that you have a wildlife garden and they are not weeds, they are there on purpose!

The fluffy seedheads are dandelion which most people think of as weeds,so remove them. As to the rest, take out things with a low flower to leaf ratio and leave the rest.

That's exactly what I'd do. I think the mix of greenery and blue flowers looks better than a border of just bark chippings. All will look smart and green once the grass is neat.

You can then deal with it in your own time after having time to think and do a bit of research.

The blue flower is alkanet (I think) which bees and butterflies love, so you might not want to get rid of it all. It's a bugger to get out anyway as it has long taproots.

Get a hoe, it's so much easier to get weeds out of you hoe first, google it, I use a kinda chopping/chipping action, chop/chip into the ground, you can go through the weeds and into the dirt, basically breaking the top layer of earth.
Start with a small patch, start chipping into the dirt / weeds at the farthest point then move backwards if that makes sense.
When you've done a patch put some gloves on and pull the weeds out then go over it again and try to get most of the roots.
My grandad used to say a good hoeing is as good as a good watering, it aerates the ground 😁

I went to pull up a weed in my front garden this afternoon. The soil was rock solid and the thing just broke off at ground level.

Green Alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens, which is what you mean, but there’s another plant in the same family known as Alkanet, so the Green helps to avoid confusion. Just like Red Valerian!

I’d cut it right down and then put mulch on it. It’s how I’ve done borders in my front garden. Then when they come back up they are a lot easier to remove.

I use this https://www.amazon.co.uk/YouGarden-Strulch-Mineralised-Straw-Mulch/dp/B097RTZGCK/ref=sxts_rp_s_a_sp_1_0?content-id=amzn1.sym.f84819a4-07b1-4706-b2d1-d0dcd86c3a96%3Aamzn1.sym.f84819a4-07b1-4706-b2d1-d0dcd86c3a96&crid=3S7O84MWCC1A4&cv_ct_cx=strulch&keywords=strulch&pd_rd_i=B097RTZGCK&pd_rd_r=55f10a1c-85a5-4a02-a5f7-04dfd2687829&pd_rd_w=dW98F&pd_rd_wg=YZsr2&pf_rd_p=f84819a4-07b1-4706-b2d1-d0dcd86c3a96&pf_rd_r=60K6F6ERQHCTKAPAFKBE&qid=1688192881&sprefix=strul%2Caps%2C75&sr=1-1-3e71b174-79f6-4f59-86e0-8355a51fbb63

@LoonyLois If you put two [ before your link, then a space, then a word or phrase such as Strulch, followed by two ] , then your enormously long link will appear just as the word Strulch in blue.

We planted green alkanet for the bees, it’s beautiful to have wildlife buzzing around. We eat the dandelion leaves😂Once it starts raining again you can take out the weeds you din’t like and out plug plants in but if you’re desperate distract the eye with a couple if big pots filled with vibrant colours, like geums, salvias, cosmos.

I think for the quick result you are after you should just chop off any plants you don't want down to the ground. You can worry about the longer term control at a later date. If you wanted to pull them out properly you could try watering the bed before you try. That would certainly soften up a hard crust. But wouldn't help much if your soil is clay for example.