Alan Gould wrote:
In article , Rob Keel
robkeel@[removethis] writes
Can someone please recommend.

I use a hoe!

Or a "swoe" if you're lucky enough to find one: they work on the back
stroke as well as the forward one, and can be got into odd corners. I
saw a really good "wire hoe" on GW last night, though I've never seen
one in everyday life: the local garage man or metal-worker would
probably make one out of an ordinary Dutch hoe for a couple of quid.

A hoe of any kind won't help much with tap-rooted weeds like
dandelions and thistles where Rob wants to put a lawn, though. The
best treatment for these is to dig them up with a fork. For best
results you need to dig over and rake down the site for a new lawn
anyway, and getting the weed roots out at the same time isn't really
any extra work. Take out any bit of plumpish root you can see. The
point is to have a slightly loose bed for your turf to get its roots
into as quickly as possible: it isn't really any different from
preparing the surface for sowing grass seed. Seed will give you a
better sward, and a lot cheaper, too; but it takes longer before you
can play on the lawn.

The lazy way is to lay turf on a bare surface without any
preparation: this can be a waste of money, as a lot of the turf may
die, so you might as well have done the work and sowed seed in the
first place. If there were no serious perennial weeds, you'd usually
get away with a really brutal raking -- plants do want to grow, in
spite of our lack of effort. But the plot we're talking about _has_
got weeds, and they have to be dealt with, or there'll be grief in a
few months' time.

If you want to go with just the brutal raking, then you could just
deal with the weeds when they pop up through your new lawn, using the
"Weed and Feed" stuff. Most lawn weeds are nice, of course: I don't
kill them. Otherwise, you'll have to kill the deep-rooted weeds
first. So back to digging, or use a weedkiller while they still have
good leaves for it to act on: that means glyphosate, Roundup, etc.
I'm not saying you're a bad person if you use them: I've occasionally
done it myself when there didn't seem to be any option in paths etc;
but the spray can't do you any good, and it's nearly always bullsh**
to suggest they save you effort.

Sorry this is so long. (And hi, MM! The car broke down, so I haven't
gone away.)

--
Mike.