Lawn Care

Yard Work Tips?


Hello Hello,
I'm a 28yo home owner in Maryland, this being my first and only home bought at 26. When I first moved in, things seemed not so expensive and manageable. I was able to pay bi-weekly, at least to keep my grass nice. Well, two years in, things are VERY difficult to afford on my own, so I've decided that instead of paying thousands to have my yard worked on professionally, I can spend maybe 2k and have everything I need to work on the yard myself.

So far I've acquired a lawn mower, leaf blower, chain saw, hand saw, bee suit,(because I'm deathly afraid of bugs), weed wacker, garden lime, pruners, wood chipper, and some other accessories to help keep up with the maintenance of my tools. All of my machines are either electric, or battery powered because I'm not comfortable with gas just yet. I've spent about 1100 in total, but know I may need some extra tools later.

I noticed that over the passed 2 years, living next to an abandoned house, my house and yard became engulfed with weeds, weed vines, and by far the worst thing I've ever seen in a yard, weed trees called paper mulberries. I've decided to just remove everything that I didn't notice when I initially moved in here.

So first, I tore down all my poor honey suckle bushes because they were so entangled in weeds. Then I noticed that 8 trees would spawn in the place of each paper mulberry I murdered. These trees are pretty tall considering I'm only 5'3 and boy do all these twigs, branches, and weeds, add up. I have an endless pile on my front porch that I'm hoping to put into my tree shredder, as opposed to paying to have them taken to a lot.

Well I got to a part of my chain link fence, after clearing the foliage, I noticed there are logs that have grown in and around the chains. I've been using my Ryobi hand saw to segment these thick ass chunks of wood, but it's almost as if the logs are more than what my Ryobi can handle.. my blades dull out after what seems to me, ONE LOG.. it's also very difficult to cut around the bark and not hit the fence, which I know can also dull my blade. But also I prefer not to break a piece of blade off into my body.

Once I cut up the logs, I take my hammer and a flat head screwdriver, and nail it under the parts that are grown around my fence. After that, I use the butt end of the hammer to pry the wood off. My only issue with this is I spent 3 hours doing this yesterday and only removed about 2 large branches.. is there a faster, more efficient, and less painful way (my lower back and neck hurt so bad) of doing this without having to damage my fence?

Some of these logs aren't going to fit into my wood chipper either, so if it came down to it, could I buy a giant metal trash can and just burn the logs in it, without catching anyone else's property on fire? When I rake up all the foliage and leaves after I'm finished in 6 months, can I also burn that? Can I use lighter fluid? Can I burn the mulch I'm going to get from my tree shredder?

I don't want to put any toxins in the air, but I'm literally just a girl and although I don't mind getting my acrylic nails dirty, Idk wtf I'm doing in my yard. I've already broken the first lawn mower after running over some WEIRD METAL ROD HIDDEN IN THE GROUND, and for the life of me I can't figure out how to use my weed wacker properly nor do I know how to hook up my chain saw..(this will be how I go R.I.P. to me)But of course, a lot of YouTube videos aren't even that helpful either.

I attached a few pictures, The first 4 of which are before and afters!

Please send help. Thank You. 🥹

by Pale_Diamond_5928

1 Comment

  1. AutoModerator

    The 2024 Lawn of the Year contest is here! You have until September 30th to submit your lawn for consideration.
    [Make your submissions on the stickied post, here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/s/sz6a1U6lhP) As long as you’re proud of it, its worth a shot!

    *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/lawncare) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Write A Comment

Pin