Hi, I am knew to this forum (and gardening) so please forgive me if this is written in the wrong place, I have searched but cannot find a solution to my problem.. I am hoping someone could offer me some advice?

I have recently moved into my first house which has a 'garden'.. I say 'garden' because it is more like a small overgrown meadow! My first task was to cut the grass and privets back. The first time i cut it was about a month ago with a strimmer, but i would bet that it hadnt been cut for a good few years before that as the grass was at least 2ft long, contained moths, toads and god knows what else! My girlfriend and i went on holiday the weekend after i cut the grass and on returning home 2 weeks later, we found it had hrown again to about a foot in length! Now this grass isn't nice looking. it's thick and straggly and is more like grass you would find in a wild, overgrown field, than someone's back garden. There are weeds everywhere and the ground is not level.. My question would really be - Can I take off the top couple of inches, maybe a foot to kill the grass and weeds and use what i have dug out to level the ground? I would like to get the garden looking half decent before the winter and maybe next year look at making it actual look good!

I cannot use any kind of weed killer in the garden because I have a dog, I am on a fairly tight budget so the more cost affective the better really. However, I am more than willing to do a lot of manual labour and digging in order to get it sorted.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Ryan