Advice needed to settle a domestic dispute!

Mac.the.knife

My husband and I bought an old cottage on over an acre some years ago and now the build is over we've turned our attention to the 'garden' which is basically just a mass of lawn/weeds which we got a garden designer to plan and section out for us. We've struggled to find anyone who isnt up the walls busy and have budget constraints too, so have done a lot of the work ourselves up til now. Last summer we concentrated on the hardscaping and this year we are concentrating on trying to remove the grass so we can start the planting. My partner has started the work by putting down weedkiller and then turning sections of lawn over on itself, effectively creating a compact 'weed sandwich'. Ive tried to illustrate in the pics below. I want to remove as many of the weeds as i can, break up and rotavate the soil and start fresh but he thinks it's time consuming and unnecessary as the weeds will break down themselves in time. Would anyone like to tell us the best way to begin this project? Any helpful advice is welcome, I think it's pretty obvious were total novices in this department! Thanks 😊

Citizen Six

Rent a rotivator

Seth Brundle

As above, hire a rotavator and it will prepare the ground for you. Then reseed it and the lawn will be nice and green in a few weeks.

standardg60

Hubby is right for me, you'd just be killing yourselves for no reason.

Just continue to spray off any regrowth and it will all turn into lovely humus rich soil that you can plant straight into.

ULMarc

I hired a rotovator a week ago. It was great craic and some of the most productive work we've done in our garden to date.

Dublin City Handyman

Mini digger..save time and your back.. Get rid of that sod and save the back breaking work..

Replace with fresh topsoil..

Level the garden out.

And roll out lawn or seed whichever you prefer…

ELM327

I'd be digging out the old sods altogether - either with a mini digger or by hand depending on size and work appetite (!) - and then rotavating what's left. Soil looks quite undernourished so I'd probably be looking to address that before planting if you want a nice lawn.