john wrote:
We have an average small suburban rear garden in London, about 10 x
10
metres.

It is about 5 to 10 feet deep in weeds. Each time I remove them
they
grow again very quickly, and even a strange dingo-like dog which
made
a home there, now has a house so packed with weeds he can't get in.
For various good reasons I cannot keep on digging out the weeds,
but
I want to keep it as grass and not concrete or tarmac it.

This situation cannot be new to many readers, so please help, even
a
useful URL or FAQ is better than nothing but I have not found any
useful advice on the net so far.

The best possibility so far is, after getting out the weeds and
maybe
putting on Potassium Chlorate from Poundland, to cover the whole
lot
with plastic bags, hold them down with stones and then put a thin
layer of dirt over that. But this appears in no way ideal, as rain
will remove the thin layer of soil and also it will be disturbed
when
walked on.

What I would like is a no work patch of grass or lawn, shouldn't be
impossible in this day and age. All advice welcome.

This just cannot happen if you cut it regularly: never less than once
a week. Then you can tackle the remaining weeds (there'll probably be
fewer than you fear) with the usual weed-and-feed preparations,
following the instructions on the packet. But there is no such thing
as a no-work lawn.

The plastic film idea won't work, I'm afraid, both for the reasons
you give, and because it'll be a muddy puddle when wet, and dead
grass when it's dry.

--
Mike.