Back Yard Nightmare

I had some tenants that just moved out after 3 years and I was left with 5 foot tall weeds of varying types covering the back yard. I tried an electric hedge trimmer and it couldn't even cut through the stalks. I'm doubting a weed whacker will cut it either. I've been going through and manually clipping each stalk because they're too tough to pull out by the roots, but it's going to take me weeks to accomplish that. Is there a machine I could rent that could help demolish these stubborn weeds? Like a rototiller? What then? I have two small children with asthma and a dog with skin allergies, so spraying a toxic weed killer across the yard isn't an option. Are there other alternatives?

Rent a weed eater with plastic blades, or a steel blade.

Be VERY careful, especially with the steel blade. It can do a lot of damage, fast. Wear all suggested protective gear and make sure the kids and dog cannot get into the yard.

The plastic blades are safer, and could get through that stuff, (I have the same weeds here).

You may have to call several rental yards to see who carries a weedeater that comes with the plastic blades.
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After it is mowed down to perhaps 6" or less, rake and remove the debris.
Pick up all the stuff you find lost in the weeds.

Then rent a REAR TINE tiller. These are MUCH stronger than the front tine ones. Till it once in one direction, then the other way. ie: the first time you will be traveling north and south, the next time you will be traveling east and west.

Next, rake through it all and remove everything you can.

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Water. Hoping something will sprout.
Rototill, front tine tiller is OK, these will just be the little seedlings.
If anything comes up so strongly you suspect the root has survived, dig it out with pick and shovel. The rear tine tiller should have gotten almost all of this sort of thing if it was shallow rooted.

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This sort of treatment will destroy surface irrigation like drip tubing, and will probably mangle pop-up heads, and risers. I would accept that damage, on the assumption that the place will be re-landscaped.

I don't know the name of it but we needed to clear a piece of land we bought -- NO WAY house gardening tools could do it...and we hired a fellow with a bush hog?? Bush whacker?? The fellow charged 75 an hour and he plowed through that acre of wannabe trees. He had to bring it to the top of the mountain with a trailer and so maybe less $$ normally...but this was 10 years ago.

Edited to say this is something he sat in like a tractor

This message was edited Jul 27, 2015 7:08 PM

I'd be interested in a follow up of this story, um, I mean nightmare.

There are probably several tractor mounted tools that could do this, if there is a way to get a tractor into the back yard.
Anything that cuts parallel to the ground would clear the top growth.
Anything that digs into the ground (rototiller, discs. rippers) would churn up the roots for easier removal. It won't matter how badly you spread the seed, or scatter the bits of weed that might root and grow- the weeds are already all over the place.
The first step it to debulk the mess. Get it back to clear dirt.

Then deal with seedlings and other sprouts from remnants of plants that got chopped up and blended with the soil.