What's best way to resurrect lawn?

[BL00CowWonders]

Our builders are finish and the garden is looking very sad. I'm pretty sure the lawn will grow back, although it wasn't very good to start with. But there are loads of tiny little bits of stuff (plastic/ metal etc£scattered. If I try and mow, I'm a bit worried that I'll either break the mower or something. Any ideas?

rake?

We are in exactly the same position. The builders finished in February and, after a thorough rake and clear-up, it seems that any green stuff growing on the lawn is actually moss.

My lovely DH has spent a good few hours last weekend stabbing small holes in teh lawn with a fork. He is ready with the moss killer/lawn feed and fast-growing grass seed. I made lots of cups of tea for him.

Sigh. OUr lawn is never going to look like centre court, but I hope it ends up better than this!

Is your lawn sunny? If not (assuming it isn't if it's always been not great) it's a good opportunity to reseed with a shade loving grass mix, so look on the bright side!

I don't think there is a good way to get rid of the metal/plastic other than rake and then pick by hand. Then you can sand any mossy patches, aerate, rake and reseed. If it's a dry spring water it a lot and you should have a lovely lawn by late summer!

recruit a couple of urchins and offer them £1 per filled ice-cream tub of lawn rubbish.

Looks like it's just going to be hard graft then. But whose? I like the idea of bribery...

Rake/scarifying to get rid of debris and dead grass
Take out big obvious weeds with a trowel
Aerate (make holes all over with a fork)
Re seed (although you might be fighting a losing battle with birds at this time of year)
Feed with a fertiliser. A good garden centre will advise on the best sort for your particular soil/grass type.

Do you have any urchins available? It's a good option