Gardening Advice Please

I've made a "lawn " from seed twice, well 3 times really because the first didn't work.
This is probably a good time of the year to start it, the soil is warming up Once I tried in Sept. but there wasn't enough rain to get it going (France.)
Whenever you do it soil preparation is essential (this applies to laying turf too.)
Dig, remove weeds and stones, rake over, then roll flat. If you don't have a roller use some wooden boards and jump on them . Then scatter the seeds. Roll again to embed them. Then water regularly.
You will probably need to protect the seeds from birds too.
So all in all I would say rolls of turf is much the best option. You still need to prepare the soil, and water regularly, but get instant results and avoid the bird problem.
I would have laid turf here, but it's difficult to find any.

hello, I'm new here - but am also a newly retired landscape gardener, and female. Just wanted to say, ZaneO, buy a fork and spade - its much easier to dig with a fork than with a spade. You'd need to dig over, removing any weed roots you find, especially perennial weeds like dock. then you need to rake the area more or less level, then walk over it on our heels, every inch of it, to find any soft spots. Then you rake it over again and re- level. Now its ready for you to lay seed or turf.
If you use seed, you can't cut it the first 3 times with a mower, has to be by hand with a pair of shears, and you can't use it 'normally' (walking over it, etc) for 3-6 months. Turf, on the other hand, can be used normally within 4-6 weeks... If you decide to lay turf instead, once you're ready to lay it, sprinkle the area with Growmore granules prior to laying...

Thank you ever so much Elegranfor taking the time, it has helped loads I did not know that there are different types of grass seeds.

The garden centres have packets of grass seed mixtures for different uses - tough ones for children to play on, fine ones for classy lawns, ones for dryer areas, and so on. Different varieties of grass have different characteristics, so a mixture is better than a single one.

I have never done a lawn from seed, but I know that you have to get it very level and the soil very fine and completely free of weeds. Lawns are generally sown in either September or April, and all the weeds taken out as they grow. If the weather is reasonable (not extremely dry or extremely wet) it starts to grow fairly soon. To start with it is quite thin, lots of earth showing through.

There are probably many websites with more detailed advice than that.

Just for the record, does it work when you put grass seed down? how long does it take and can I also ask is there a particular good one Thank you in advance for your help

Thank you for that Elegran

I saw someone hoovering one in front of a pub in Oxford!

But apparently you do have to hose it down, or it fills up with dust and grows weeds!

There is an artificial front lawn near us and it always looks great and is hard to tell from the real thing!

Zane0 I had a bit of a look on Google, and if artificail grass has a RADICI Certification of Non-Toxicity it is lead-free.

This link is to the Google page I found with various sites with to information on artificial grass - https://www.google.co.uk/#q=artificial+grass+lead+free or places who will sell you it.