It was a very dry summer last year and we probably lost 3/4ths of our lawn to dead grass or crabgrass. Normally it's an uphill battle to get spring grass back in more than patches, but with a really wet spring so far and some different seed and techniques, the new grass has come in roaring.

1. Raked and surface shoveled out dead grass, crabgrass, moss, etc. Biggest pain in the ass here. Took me upwards of 20 hours, and was backbreaking at times in very stubborn patches of dead crabgrass. 2. Used Scott's 2x Rapid Grass this year. Expensive, but the results have been excellent. Or is it the rain? Can't be sure. 3. Covered with good quality top soil and raked through. 4. Watered every day unless it rained, which thankfully was almost half the days.

This is only a portion of the lawn, but as recently as early April, most of this and the rest of the lawn around the house was yellow, brown, dead, patchy. Some busting ass and a great spring for growth really did the trick.

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Recently I went down the rabbit hole trying to research a top end battery powered weed whacker, as my two different (cheap) Black & Decker models are really frustrating. There are some Makitas I'm looking at that are as powerful as gas powered ones, but that price ($350+ with batteries/charger), whew! Any recommendations?

Following up on this, my wife has a billion photos on her phone, so she was able to find me some lawn progression photos.

March:
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April:
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Last week before mowing:
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What do you guys use for weeds? This is my fourth summer in this house. Year one I used Roundup, which is effective, but also stays a long time in the ground and over time works its way out further than you sprayed it and kills the grass next to the beds.

Year two I used Weed B Gon, which is also a chemical treatment but supposedly less hazardous to both grass and people/pets, and the results were decent, not great. However, it's main ingredient, 2,4-D, has recently been put on a WHO advisory list, but plenty of agencies say it's safe. One of our dogs got cancer and sadly died from it last year. Are either of these chemicals responsible? Impossible to say, of course, but I'd rather not roll the dice again having three dogs currently, two of them puppies.

Last year I used one of those long blow torches that hook up to a propane tank, which is fun of course, but it takes *forever* as you have to hold the torch over every weed for about 30 seconds to make sure it's dead at the root. If you have 10-20 weeds, it's great. If you have hundreds, it's not an option. It's also not very fun to use in the hot summer, obviously.

This year I'm using a rototiller attachment to my Ryobi 40v multitool, and that has mixed results as well. Works great if all you have is soil and weeds to work with, but the beds I'm trying to weed have lots of trees and bushes, which means tons of roots. This thing is tough enough on the back after a while, but getting caught on roots, which then sharply jerks the machine forward, is murder on the back after an hour.

The best solution is one day laying down mesh over these beds then putting stone on top, but I'm not ready for that project this year. Hand picking isn't really an option considering there's four large beds plus an entire paver block patio where weeds come through the gaps.

I appreciate the info @cdnpinbacon, but I was talking about plain old weeds (and errant grass from overseeding this year) in a bed/island/whatever you might call it, not mixed in with the lawn. I took some photos just now. I have a lot of islands like this around the property with roots running through most of them, which is what's stopping me with the tiller:

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You can see where I went through with the tiller a few days ago and where I didn't. I also didn't get all the weeds/grass because as it churns dirt, it covers up weeds and you end up missing them. A cool tool, but not great for my weeding needs. Should come in very handy next spring though when seeding and if I ever do a vegetable garden.

Also this paver block patio:

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Notice in the background a set of concrete steps nearly disintegrated by 70+ pinballs thunking up and down them.

mbwalker I like your suggestions. Would you use 2,4-D in my situation or Tenacity?

I think I've played more with my Ryobi 40v multi-tool this summer than I've played my pinballs. Amazing how well the pole saw attachment works from 10' away, and the weed whacker attachment is almost like a video game weapon, pretty sure it could cut through a log.

Instead of bagging leaves this year I've been mulching them with either the push mower or ride-on and it's awesome, I wish I started doing this sooner. It doesn't really save that much time as I have to blow/rake the leaves into lines first (kind of like tree cocaine) and that takes a while, but what would have been at least 30 full leaf bags by this point is just very fine mulch and leaf dust for the planter beds. It's probably good to put a little on the lawn too?

3 dogs here, and it's a never ending battle. There's no way to get that grass back other than removing it and re-seeding and top soiling, and then watering those patches every day for a month. Like people said, we try to spray water on their pee spots right after they pee, but it's impossible to catch all the pees, or even half of them (especially at night). Between fixing dog pee spots, weeds, trimming bushes/trees, and regular mowing, my free time from April-October might be 10 to 1 yardwork over pinball.

Glad this thread popped up so I didn't have to go searching for it even though I was thinking about it today. Had portions of several trees knocked down in a heavy snowstorm 2-3 weeks ago, did some preliminary cuts to them where they lay over the weeks, but finally today gave it a good 4 hour effort to start breaking them all down.

Is there a more reliable tool in the garage than Fiskars loppers? About 30-60 bucks depending on type, will cut *anything* they fit around, and never seem to get dull or break no matter how hard they get used. I want a Fiskars themed pinball.