Neglected lawn

Would appreciate some advice as I'm not a gardening person. I moved into a house with a small back garden last Oct. The garden was severely overgrown and hadn't been cut in two/three years. I immediately bought a strimmer and got rid of most of the longer grass but there is still long weedy grass matted to the ground. I thought it would die off over the past few months, but it hasn't, though much of it is withered but still holding firm in the ground.
I really want a lawn this year. What should I do? If I spray weed killer,the grass will wither but how will new grass grow. Could I douse it in petrol and burn it all off? Its a bit big for digging it all up, but even then what would I do?
I'm working on a tight budget. All I want is a simple lawn. HELP PLEASE!

 

If you only want a half decent lawn, and are not after anything special, then it should be reasonably easy to achieve.
As soon as possible get out with the mower, the more you mow the more you will get rid of the coarse grass. If it is still longish dont try to cut too low with the mower.
As for the dead brown grass matted to the ground, well I would wait till maybe April and give the whole area a raking with a spring tine rake, in order to pull some of it out and lift it so the mower can cut it.

 

It would take me about a day to sort out you problem, strim the old grass down to as short as you can then run a mower over it to clean up all the dead grass, you should have stubs of grass by this time, now run a ratavator over it all go down about 4 inches, rake of any old grass roots and burn them.
Rake the rotavated soil nice and level then walk all over it untill it is tamped down now rerake it level add some general fertalizer and lay you new grass turf water well and away you go.
let me know how you get on.
Regards Dave

 

It would take me about a day to sort out you problem, strim the old grass down to as short as you can then run a mower over it to clean up all the dead grass, you should have stubs of grass by this time, now run a rotavator over it all go down about 4 inches, rake of any old grass roots and burn them.
Rake the rotavated soil nice and level then walk all over it untill it is tamped down now rerake it level add some general fertalizer and lay you new grass turf water well and away you go.
let me know how you get on.
Regards Dave