hi all

am new here so please forgive any faux pas/rubbishness/ignorance

i'm not a gardener by any means but have managed to transform my lawn from a wilderness to something approaching semi respectability by ley man's standards.

we bought our house last spring ('10) and garden was a wilderness so have managed to clear it of wood/fire scorch marks and flatten then sow some grass seed into the lawn to make it half decent.

the new grass has taken quite well and combines with the old grass reasonably ok.

however there are still patches in the lawn where old weeds/nettles/old shrubs/plants grow thickly or bare ground is evident and visible.

what's the best way of sorting this out so the weeds etc are killed, the new grass stays healthy and the bare bits are thickened up with more green?

all i want is a flat-ish, green lawn...nothing more, nothing less.

obviously its october now, so do i need to leave it till the spring and kill the weeds off as they grow, or is there anything i can do over the winter to kill weeds/nettles which are now cut down by the last mow of the summer?

i take it its not worth using the left over grass seed during the winter months or should i just bung it on and see what happens?

all advice very welcome and i'd be most grateful for any thoughts/experience/words of wisdom.

many thanks in advance