Deciding the lawn's shape

When the lawn is ready for its first cut, mow around the perimeter in the shape that you want, and use this as a guide to cutting the new lawn edges. In this way you'll have a lawn edge which is easy to follow with a mower. Don't let the garden control you! Awkward areas are better reshaped than struggling to mow them.

Weed control

All this ground disturbance will mean a flush of weeds, so pay particular attention to hoeing and hand-weeding so that the weeds don't flower, set seed and cause further problems. Eventually the weed seed in the soil's surface will become exhausted and you will have less weeding to do.