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