On Fri, 18 Apr 2003 19:16:15 +0100, Alan Gould
wrote:

In article , Bobby
writes
There's a small area at the side of my house that is badly weeded. It was
never properly grassed and is now a mixture of grass and weeds. What's the
best way to fix this? Should I simply dig-up the whole lot and plant more
grass? I'm a newbie to gardening and I'm not sure how to do this. Cheers.

If you mow it regularly, most of the weeds will subside.

Bobby,
It sounds as though it may be quite 'lumpy' to boot. Roll it too.

Don't worry about getting too close a crop. It's not a good idea
anyway, the grass doesn't like it.

Alan's prognostication below will still be valid

The remainder,
such as clover, daisies, buttercups etc. will like lawn conditions and
will re-appear

unless you re-soil and re-seed the area.

Oh you don't want to do that do you? You'll have a wonderfully
colourful and interesting grazed meadow to which you could add some
niceties. I expect it will be a dry meadow but if there is a damp
patch, say at the drip ring of a large shrub or tree you could plant
some niceties like a clump of the tall Buttercup (Ranunculus) acris.
Mow around it like you do the daffs in Springtime.

I would have a go at giving plantains a struggle for survival
though. One of those narrow hand trowels. Fill earth into the hole it
leaves and sprinkle some seed in. You'll probably have enough grass so
you could plant something else low and creepy but more exotic. If it
survives, it survives, it would probably find it hard to build up a
colony though because most of the space around it is already taken up
by vigourous pre-senescent (sp?) other plants whose seed will be
having an equally hard time to find a niche to germinate
satisfactorily.

Your lawn needn't even have an edge but disappear into shrubbery
where the buttercups and t'ings go all sulky and the little woodland
plants have a field day.

etc.etc

What was the point of all that in relation to your original
question?

Oh yes. Put your feet up and let nature do the work .. well most of
it anyway .. and the work you do, enjoy as you would a conversation.

Huss (end of Easter homily)

peals of laughter - (Don't have the same aversion to
'expression tags')

Grow a little garden

spam block - for real addy, reverse letters of second level domain.