I just moved into a house in San Francisco that has a small backyard that hasn't been maintained for a number of years. I'd like to restore it to its former glory (lush lawn in the middle, fruit trees at the back, flower and vegetable gardens along the sides), and then some, but I'm a total newby when it comes to gardening so I have a lot of questions.
The first thing I'd like to tackle is the lawn. Currently, it's mostly dried out weeds (it doesn't rain here from late spring until mid-fall, so we're just entering the rainy season now). I don't know whether I should buy seeds and try to grow a new lawn myself, or if I should buy turf and lay it down on top of the existing lawn (after tilling it up?).
I'd prefer the first option, because it seems like it'd be a lot cheaper. But I don't know what steps to take to achieve optimal results, and whether the end product will look as good as laid turf. Should I kill the existing weeds with round-up first? Then till the soil, mix in fertilizer, then plant grass seeds? Any advice would be really appreciated!