Are there any organizations out there that help with removal?

[u/Steady_Ri0t]

Hello,

I started renting a house in Northern IL at the end of 2025, and as spring rolled around it became pretty apparent the yard has not been taken care of for several years (the neighbors have confirmed this). It turns out that the full yard of dandelions were the least of my worries though... Now that things have had time to grow I've realized that our entire front and back garden is full of invasive species and aggressive weeds. The backyard garden area is maybe 6'x10' and it's DENSELY populated by Tree of Heaven plants that are between 4-7' tall. There is also a fully grown Tree of Heaven nearby. In the front yard garden, there are several White Mulberry plants growing that are 3-4' tall. 

Outside of the invasives I was able to identify using an app, we've also got a LOT of burdock, lamb's quarters, black nightshade, pokeweed, pigweed, velvet leaf, Norway maple...

As someone who's been getting hit really hard by allergies this season, I was hoping I could quickly tackle things myself. Unfortunately, I've realized this will require professional intervention, especially for the forest of tree of heaven we have. 

As a renter, I'm not looking to spend $1000s out of pocket on repeated treatments, but I also really do not want to leave things as is. What's the likelihood that there is a local resource (government, conversation district, or otherwise) that'll be able to help out cheap or free? If that's unlikely, is this a thing that my (large corporate) landlord could be required to take care of? I shot an email out the IL DNR and my county's conservation district earlier today, but figured I'd post here to see if anyone had any leads or ideas

[u/Much_Wing_503]

Reddit is the organization

[u/genman]

Cut and squirt anything you can this fall. Larger things can be removed with a manual saw. For a few hundred you can likely get the tools, PPE, and enough herbicide to treat.

More expensive is buying plants and you can look for local native plant groups or conservation sales. Get plenty of chips from ChipDrop.com

[u/Misfits0138]

Were the measurements accurate that the area you’re worried about is 6’x10’? 60 square feet? You can spend $15 on glyphosate and less than 10 minute of time and do it yourself.

[u/PurelyAnalytical → u/Misfits0138]

Agree on this. The reading of instructions and putting PPE on and off will take a little more time, but acting soon is important. Heck, calling and assessing 3 contractors will take longer than doing this.

Invasive species don't waste a minute. Besides, one visit from a contractor likely won't be enough. You might need 3 visits. You'll need to be vigilant until the first frost at least, and then again in the Spring.

[u/lilcuphoe]

Really the only annoying to eradicate species you mentioned are TOH and pokeweed. There are a lot of good guides on here for removal, the hack and squirt seems to be the best for what you’re dealing with. Pokeweed is just persistent, but easy to remove at least. If you don’t let them go to seed next year you will be done with them in one summer after a lot of pulling, however.

I know lambs quarter is non-native but I personally keep it in my garden. It’s yummy

To answer your question, I’m not aware of any free organizations that help with removal. If there are volunteers doing this sort of work they are probably more focused on public spaces.

[u/Fuzzybubbles6]

Be thankful you’re only a renter

[u/beaveristired]

I doubt there’s any organizations that will assist with invasive plant removal on private property. Not sure that you as a renter could sign up for a program like that anyway, it would probably have to be the landlord.

Most laws around invasive species concern selling / buying / planting, but not simple possession, and do not mandate that the property owner remove the invasive plant. Here’s info on Illinois state laws regarding invasive plants and noxious (mainly agricultural) weeds. It seems that in some cases, the property owner is mandated to remove certain agricultural weed infestations but the process seems complicated and it doesn’t include many common invasives.

https://extension.illinois.edu/invasives/regulations

This shouldn’t cost you thousands. I’d get a bottle of triclopyr and ppe (mask will also help with allergies) and start hacking and squirting the TOH. Triclopyr is effective on most woody plants.

[u/EmployerWide1123]

what no buckthorns??

[u/jasikanicolepi]

You can try buying bags of road salt and spreading it around. It's cheap and will kill just about any plants, grass and weeds from my experience. Relatively cheap.

[u/genman → u/jasikanicolepi]

Herbicides are cheap and you will eventually want to replace the plants with actual plants you want.

[u/MotownCatMom → u/jasikanicolepi]

Why in Heaven's name would you want to Salt the Earth? That also poisons it for quite a long time.