At a loss with my lawn....

Good evening one and all, I'm at a loss with my garden and need help. Let me paint the scene...... I moved into my current home some 4 years ago. The house and garden can only be compared to that of Mr Trebus the polish guy from Life of Grime on BBC one. The only decent grass was growing on what turned out to be an old carpet the rest was old sofas, beds and various kitchen appliances. I have spent 4 years building a raised area for decking and my raised beds, the kids play area and just kind of tried my best with the weed/grassed area. At the start of this year I lost patience took the enter top layer off by hand leaving the bare soil. Turned all thos over and took out all the stone (over a skip full) and treated with weed killer 3 times. Problem is all the rain we had stopped me from levelling it. Now I have even more stone on the top and weeds/grass by the recycling bin full!! Is there any easy win on this?? I turned it all by hand and at about 8mx6m it's a time consuming effort on my own. Just want to level it and put turf down next April but worry about these stones and the weeds. Any advice great fully received.

Hiya pump head..sounds like ive just insulted you, doesn't it? Firstly, relax.you have all winter and you will have dry days. The stones? Are they big ? Otherwise don't worry too much but just keep raking and removing when you can. The weeds? Annual weeds will eventually be controlled by regular mowing but the raking and hoeing over winter will control these by turf laying time. I would spread compost on the top too before laying the turf. And dwarf rye grass for the turf is very hardwearing. Weeds will grow but, as I have already said, they can be mown out or treated with lawn weedkiller when the lawn is 6 months' old.

Firstly-you will never get rid of the stones in a garden-and they help with the drainage

I am not sure why you treated bare earth with weed killer-3 times???- having removed the top layer-I would have treated that layer with weed killer -would have save you a lot of work in my opinion

The best thing you can do now is relax-wait until spring- spray with weed killer the area you have left-wait for it to die off-lightly fork over ,level turf or seed.

That would my plan-for what it is worth

Cheers folks. Its ok Verdun its a nickname I have had for 18 years. Should have said the stones in question are kind off new potato size that are causing concern. Guess a quick clear round of the larger stuff before turfing will be best. Sotongeoff - It wasnt the whole area all 3 times thankfully, just I think this year must have been perfect weed weather. I will keep waging battle against the garden over winter. Keep going at it a bit at a time. Slowly slowly catchy monkey and all that!!