Help with invasive weeds/fall garden clean up.

Hello!

I recently moved into a place where the previous renters a few years back had permacultured the backyard. However, it's been many many years since it has been maintained and it looks that way. There is a few surviving fruit trees, raspberries, blackberries, etc but most of the yard is covered in invasive weeds (mainly cheatgrass and houndstongue) and dead trees/bushes. It's quite overwhelming, especially as someone as inexperienced as me.  I am happy to hand pull them all but not sure if thats the most effective. I am hoping to do lots this fall on the yard. This will be my first real project so you if you have any suggestions/thoughts on highest priorities before the winter please let me know. Excited about being apart of this community.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum!

Do you have chipdrop available for free wood chips?  If so get several loads dump on those weeds, At least 6" deep though 12" is even better.

Fall would also be a good time to gather leaves and start a compost pile.

Fall is also a good time to trim those berry bushes.

I would not get too radical, this area being undisturbed may have enriched soil. Look for earthworms and be sure you are making them comfortable. Take things a bit at a time with a long term goal in mind. I am putting my garden to rest for the season and planting winter rye where I can. After some much needed rainfall the earthworms are revived and doing the heavy lifting, let the soil work for you.

Start with the area immediately around the fruit trees and raspberries rather than trying to tackle the whole yard. Get those established first with some chips or mulch, then expand from there. Trying to clear everything at once is how you burn out in the first season.

Where are you located?

Wise words from Anne Miller, Doug McEvers and Joao Winckler above.

I would add -- make time and room to understand the land. Action is good, but observation is better.

Chop out enough paths through vegetation and dead stuff that you can wander through with a cup of coffee and simply make note of the light coming in, the bird life, the insect life, the patterns of wind at different times of day.

Put a shovel deep in the soil to see what is happening down there, and what resources you have to work with. My 2c.

With cheatgrass and houndstongue I'd worry more about stopping another crop of seed than making the whole yard look pretty this fall. Anything with mature seed heads gets dealt with first and handled carefully so you're not spreading them everywhere while pulling. Then reclaim the areas you actually care about most, around the fruit trees and berries, and work outward a little at a time. Take some pictures now too. Once everything dies back it can be surprisingly hard to remember exactly where the worst patches were when spring comes around.

Where in the world are you located? Just a general idea would help us help you.

Regarding the dead trees and bushes... Much of the USA has been in an unusual drought in 2026. Many of my perennials are dropping leaves very early, and all are looking quite sad. So some of those that look dead may surprise you in spring time. Have you tried scraping a bit of bark off of a branch end? If there is green showing, it is still alive. Even the 'dead' ones may come back from the roots.

I would treat them all as if they were alive. If it is in your budget, I'd give everything some mulch. Even just a layer of leaves gathered from the neighborhood, placed around each perennial can do lots to nourish the soil, should they really be dead.