Is there anything I can do to the area in order to reseed before the 3-month lifespan of the pre-emergents wears off? Is there a chemical to neutralize the weed and seed killers? Scrape off an inch of the topsoil? Would bringing in sod work? (Don�t know if I can afford that, though.)

I know the best time to reseed is the fall but I do not look forward to killing weed after weed all summer while looking at 80x20 feet of brown eroding dirt. My neighbors are complaining about the eyesore already � by July they�ll be reporting me to the city.

BTW, I used Greenview crabgrass preventer and lawn food, followed two weeks later by Bonide Weedbeater Complete, followed a week later by a blast of Weed-b-Gone CCO on the ground ivy, clover, chickweed and violets. The CCO didn�t even so much as wrinkle a single clover or ground ivy leaf so I will redose at double strength as recommended in these forums. The Bonide did nothing either. One or the other did shrivel the dandelions, though.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Removing the top layer of soil would certainly work.

Sodding would certainly work.

Really raking the area well and mixing up the top layer of soil will limit the effectiveness of the premergent, but won't eliminate it completely.

Personally, this is what I would do.

1) Mow the area as short as possible and bag up the weed scraps
2) Use a rake or hoe to rough up the first 2 inches of soil.
3) Seed the area with perennial rye. It germinates super fast and will be easy to kill this fall when you renovate the area properly.

In the fall, round-up the whole area and start fresh.