relaying front garden

[Hass]

hello all,
I have a small front garden about 4m x 2m (said it was small).

The previous owner had decided to plant some lavender and other horrible plants all around the edges.
I want to make it completely flat and plain grassed like the neighbours.

I trimmed all the edges and finally used a electric trimmer during winter to really dig out as much as posible.
I know a lot of roots are left and when it warms up it will just all come back with weeds and weird things.

What would be the correct procedure for sorting this out?
ie. dig down about a foot and remove all roots etc then lay topsoil or something?

There was a bald corner so I hand threw a bunch of cheap grass seeds. I then covered it with compost!
After a week it was pretty long grass lol. If I mow it, the grass gets ripped out as the compot is too soft.

Any suggestions on doing this quick, cheap and easily? (not much then)
Any tools to make digging up easier?
thanks, regards

 

[dextrous]

Dig out the top 4 inches or so, lay some cloth weed membrane, put a mixture of sharp sand and topsoil on this, level it and compact it (walk over it), let it settle for a few weeks, level it again, and then lay turf.

 

[Hass]

cheers dextrous.
I've never used sand, membranes and the like so I think I'll look at pro help. I'm just an amateur DIY guy who has a sense of pride in his work so defo don't like doing half baked jobs especially if I'm not sure about any part.

cheers for the info. Now to find a magical tonne of cash lol.

PS. is topsoil similar to compost except it is hardwearing and a lot tougher?