Lawn troubles - advice appreciated

[GailTheSnail]

This is probably a daft question but im not great at gardening so any advice appreciated ..we have a tonne of weeds in our lawn. Last year my partner dug some out leaving big holes in the lawn and this year I tried with weedkiller . That has resulted in big dry dead patches in the lawn so neither looks good. Is there any way to get shot of the weeds and keep the lawn looking ok? And which is more effective? Weeds killer or digging up? Both?

If you’re digging out weeds, you then need to reseed the bare patches.

Use lawn weed killer, it kills the weeds but not the grass

If you use weed killer you're just left with dead weeds in the lawn that you have to dig out (and you've filled your lawn with poison and chemicals).
I dig mine out, then fill the hole with a bit of soil/compost and reseed. If you do this regularly you will beat the weed in a year or two.

I have a lawn weedkiller treatment once a year in spring. Theres absolutely no way to keep up with it otherwise. I dont dig out the dead weeds I just leave them to rot away. I reseed afterwards. The lawn company tells me the chemicals break down immediately and the kids go straight out that afternoon. There's an absolute ton of pollinator plants and grass etc left to go to seed in other parts of the garden, we've had so many butterflies this year, lots of different birds visiting, tons of insects, so I dont feel too bad about the once a year treatment. If I didn't do it id have no lawn at all and I spend a decent amount of time weeding most days.

This is all very useful info-.thank you!

Just leave the weeds and call it a meadow, it's not pc any more to have a perfect weed free lawn, reduce mowing as well.

Edit: maybe seed with grass and wild flower mix in the bald spots!

If you do want to use weed killer I usually use a very targeted selective spot spray, that doesn't kill lawns - Doff do a good one. Then wait around 4-6 weeks and do an overseed. My lawn has only few weeds come through in it so tend to pull them out by hand anyway lol

Grass has evolved to be constantly nibbled and kept short by grazing animals so will tolerate frequent mowing. Weeds, on the other hand, don't like it.

I would suggest that you cut the grass every 3 or 4 days from now right through till the end of October. Use a sharp vegetable knife or a daisy grubber to attack weeds and get rid of them; and chuck handfuls of lawn seed on any bare patches, and keep those areas watered.

(a daisy grubber is a pointy, forked garden hand tool for digging out weeds)