Inspect the lawn thoroughly - if its more than 60% weeds or undesirable plants, take it up, thoroiughly prepare the area by digging out weed roots, level, walk all over it to get out soft spots, and rake up the surface again, then returf, or reseed. Bear in mind, though, that lawns grown from seed cannot be used normally for 3 months, and that includes regularly walking over it - the first cut or two need to be done by hand, although I find a good, sharp bladed hover mower usually does it without ripping it out by the roots.

If you decide its salvageable, then yes, mow it - remove all clippings and scarify thoroughly, then recut. Check whether the tussocky mounds are actually meadow or wild grass, which you don't want in a lawn - it always grows quicker and makes it lumpy, so dig those out. Then aerate it - it should look absolutely terrible after the scarification, but don't worry, it will recover. Feed the grass with a proprietary lawn fertilizer within a week of scarification (not a combined preparation, just fertilizer for lawns). Once any weeds are growing strongly and the air temperature is reasonable, apply a liquid lawn weedkiller such as Verdone 2 - this type of lawn weedkiller is more effective than those found in combined preparations such as WeednFeed granular ones. You will probably need to repeat the Verdone treatment according to the instructions on the bottle. As for holes or dips in the lawn, fill those in with weed free soil, or use John Innes No. 1, and seed the tops if they hollows are large enough. Be careful when applying lawn weedkiller or fertilizer though- this should be not applied to grass seed or seedlings for up to 3 months.

Mow regularly, always take up the clippings for the first year - after that, if the weather is hot and dry, clippings can be left, but should be collected if its damp. If you want more information on lawns, get hold of a copy of The Lawn Expert by D. G. Hessayon - everything you ever wanted to know about lawns in there, costs around £13, maybe less.

And make sure you have a nice comfy chair for afterwards....

Or an osteopath...;-)

Or both...

haha - thanks folks - I already put the chair out and booked the osteopath after planting out a hedge a couepl of weeks back.

Sounds like a lot of stuff to do but within my limited capabilities. Next job will be to find a decent a lawn mower!