"James Moore" wrote in message
...
Hi all

Until I bought my first house, my experence of gardening was to yank out
the nettles from the stairs approaching my upper floor flat.

Well all that has changed now as I have an 80ft plus garden which can
(and does) accommodate many varieties of nettles and weeds.

My problem is, I would like to designate a patch of my garden to provide
a durable lawn for my young sons to play (say ...approx 95%) Now as it
stands, the lawn is in a real state with many patches of weeds
throughout plus it is very uneven with dips and mounds better suited to
4x4 adveture treks.

Sadly, it seems I know as much about gardening as I do women
therefore......I need advice......for the lawn bit at least. Would I be
looking at killing off all my weeds and nettles with chemicals (which
I'm concerned about with young kids around).....should I lift the lot
and buy turf.......what about grass seeds??.........and what about
leveling the garden off so that I have something of a flat surface.

Another alternative could be to tarmac the whole lot and paint parking
bays so my boys could have their own carpark to play in.....this would
leave me to do what I do best......yank out the odd nettle as they
emerge.

I would appreciate any advice given.......or prices for tarmacing!!

Yours sincerely

James Moore

Something like glyphosate weedkiller will get rid of most of the weeds,
although you may need occasional retreatment, and it is fairly safe to use
provided you follow the instructions and keep the kids indoors whilst you
are actually using it.
Tarmac may seem an easy solution, but will it make it harder to sell the
house should you ever decide to move ? I think only a small minority of
people would want to buy a house with a tarmac garden.
As another poster comments, you will not get a really good lawn until the
kids have grown out of football.

Bevan