I personally would get rid of all the weeds with round up and get rid of what you don't want hence the stones etc. and I would sod the lawn it looks small from the pic and won't cost that much I did my entire lawn and it was a few hundred but so worth it! :) you can make that look awesome with some beds and mulch and perennial bushes that flower and even a pond, I put one in the front its so therapeutic ..Good Luck

skane; please give us a break on the Husky commercials. This problem has nothing to do with Lawn-Boy or Toro - it's something about that batch of B&S engines, which have been known as solid performers since the first power mowers. I think anyone with one of the 'Insight' mowers (which Toro is phasing out of Lawn-Boy and painting red) has a solid mower. These new LB models Toro has put in Home Depot are about as cheap as a decent mower can be, even though they incorporate features of the LB 'Insight' and the Toro 'Recycler'. With the usually reliable B&S engine, they should sell very well for Toro. I cannot imagine what is happening with the B&S engines. lb2009; if you haven't already taken it back, review the owner's manual for starting procedures and see if you're not doing something. These new B&S engines are supposed to have an automatic choke, so there's no manual choke or primer. My guess is there's an adjustment problem with that cold-enrichment system.

MINT! In the GROUND!! Just kidding...sort of. Once mint becomes established, it becomes an invasive weed. At least it does in Texas. And it gives a refreshing fragrance when you mow it down. If you want to use organics, then skip the rest of the prep you had planned. Especially skip the sulfur. Sulfur is a nonselective fungicide which is basically poison to an organic soil. Your pH is normal enough and the organics will tend to perfect it for you. Start this project in August after the evening hot nights seem to cool off. Do you have a flat surface or does it look like it was just forked? Whatever, flatten it first, scatter the seed, walk on every square inch of grass seed to press it into the surface of the soil, water 3x per day for 3-4 weeks until you have 80% germination, then start to back off on the watering frequency until you are watering deeply but only once every 2-3 weeks. This should be a gradual process. You won't need any amendments at this point. The fertilizer is the amendment. Always apply organic fertilizer at the surface of the soil. I really should insert something to that method of installation. Just because you have turned the soil (that was not needed, by the way), you have not killed the weeds. If you are not opposed to setting this up using RoundUp, then do this. Start watering briefly 3x per day as if you were sprouting grass seed. Just 10 minutes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner would be perfect. This will sprout all the weeds in the soil. Give them a week to get going and spray with RoundUp. Continue watering for another week or two and then spot spray any new weeds with RU. Give that a few days to dry out and then do the seed. If you skip this step, then all those weeds would have sprouted when you were sprouting the grass seed. Sometimes people panic at that, so this is the easiest way to avoid the panic. You really get what you pay for with seed. What you want is seed with Weed Crop = 0.00% and Other Crop = 0.00%. You can find these seed products on the Internet but not online. They are expensive, but they have not weeds in them. Or you can buy Home Depot seed and plan to fight the weeds for awhile until the grass gets established. For organic fertilizer I prefer to use the ingredients rather than the commercially bagged fertilizer. I like alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) from my local feed store. Here are the feeds stores in your area. Call first to see what they have. For 200 square feet you only need about 3 pounds. I would scatter it by hand.

I am not familiar with your area and what types of grass is grown and readily available, so I will let someone else comment on that. I seeded Bermuda, im in texas, about 2 years ago when my house was built. I started off with rye grass during the winter, but since it did not take everywhere, it resulted in areas where there were washouts. I did not level my lawn again before planting Bermuda, wish I would have, but it is not all that bad for me. I am currently taking my time in leveling the lawn now with a very good amount of grass. I am doing it in small sections as I have over 3/4 of an acre to maintain. So back to your situation and what I would do. If you think you have bad soil, maybe consider doing a soil test. While the soil test is being done, spray the area with round-up if you are trying to get rid of whatever you currently have. If you do not want to do that, then bring in topsoil, and then get someone to use a box blade to smooth the area and then seed whatever and whenever is recommended. I will strongly recommend not tilling. I have tilled in certain areas, where I though the ground was too hard to seed and it did result in a bumpy yard. Tilling also roots up new weeds that you currently do not have. If you do some searching here and other sites, you will see some good posts on leveling, prepping and seeding your yard. Hope that helps as a start for you. To keep this post short, I will try to answer anything else if you have specific questions.