I would put on some cardboard, soak it with water then leave it for a few weeks. As long as all the light is blocked then the weeds should be weak or dead. Rake them off then add some new compost then plant. No chemicals so no problem. You will get some weeds back though.

I just read about a home made weed killer, 2 litres of white vinegar, salt and a touch of dish soap to act as a binder. I plan on trying this.

It really depends what weeds they are - if they're mostly just annual types, Roundup will probably work on most of those. If there are perennial 'weeds' such as brambles, treatment must be applied to the woody roots to kill them off (something like SBK brushwood killer). If there's bindweed, nothing will kill that, it'll always come back, although it might be temporarily checked by some weedkillers. Note that any weedkiller such as Pathclear, which has a residual effect in the soil, is only for use on hard ground where you do not intend to plant for at least 4 months.

I'm not sure i agree with you abvout the biond weed Bamboo. I find that 3 or 4 applications of Roundup done every 2-3 weeks will generally kill Bindweed

Really - perhaps I just haven't been persistent enough then. I've even tried dilute SBK on the stuff - it gets checked, but I still find thick white roots in the ground, waiting to grow again...

Maybe I'm wrong as I hoe all my gardens every week during the growing season so perhaps it's the hoeing rather than the Roundup or maybe a combination ...

I'll do a test. I've got a new bed I took on a couple of weeks ago which has lots of bind weed. I'll apply Round up only with no hoeing on one clump and see what happens

I'll be very interested in the result...