Strimming won't get rid of the roots of these weeds, I still believe a hoe would be more effective, less noisy too. Once hoed the weeds can be raked up and disposed of.
It would take hours to use a hoe on that amount of ground and not sure a rotovator would do the job either. As soon as you got the job done, the weeds will grow back quicker than you might anticipate and it's a back-breaking job if you're not used to it. You could try a flame gun although I'm not sure how long a canister would last. Your stony ground unfortunately is going to make the job much harder if you use machinery and you MUST wear goggles or safety glasses. Your best bet might be to see if you can hire either a strimmer, flame gun or rotavator or all 3 and see what you personally feel is easiest for you. Or you could weedkill the lot which I think might be justified in this instance.
I agree GD2 if the hoe can easily penetrate the soil (it is compressed and dry) and if it won't take longer than 3 hours to do. That's about when my right arm will give.
Kent near the white cliffs. Always learning and often the hard way.
At some point before seeding or turfing, it's going to need forking over to open it up and remove any big stones, rubble and other building rubbish that might be in there, so if it was mine I'd be starting now, doing a bit each week and taking out the weed roots too. Once cleared and loosened up, hoeing off any new seedling weeds that appear would be a lot quicker and easier. But @TattyMac has said that he/she doesn't have time for that so a quicker method is needed until the proper soil prep can start.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Absolutely JennyJ. I'm hoping a renovator can deal with the soil which will allow the hard stuff to be taken out and in the meantime strimming, hoeing, pulling at the weeds before they seed. I think it would take me 50 or 100 days to do it manually. I'll pull something I expect. Still, a few days off work would be nice.
Kent near the white cliffs. Always learning and often the hard way.
Joking aside, please make sure you wear safety goggles, boots and trousers, not flip flops and shorts. You may think that's obvious, but you'd be surprised 🙄. Any reputable hire shop will give you good advice, not just hand it over with a "Here you go mate".
Apart from all the good advice I’d also go out there tomorrow morning and get rid of that seeding dock ... bag and bin it. It’s probably the most pernicious of the weeds there and getting rid of those seeds will avoid trouble in the future.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'll look out for that dock thanks. They didn't have the motor strimmer in the shop today. I've got an electric one which might stretch to half of it but now it's going to rain. The lucky pixies don't hang around long (otherwise you would have seen one).
Kent near the white cliffs. Always learning and often the hard way.
You need weedkiller. Anything else will allow the weeds to outcompete the new grass when sown. One treatment now, pehaps another in early Aug, one 2 weeks before you seed
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Any reputable hire shop will give you good advice, not just hand it over with a "Here you go mate".
If applying weed killer I will use PP3: mask, suite, boots, gloves. Just for one dandelion! That's me.
avoid trouble in the future.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.