Samantha - I too, thought of just redoing all of the entire beds, but I knew it would still be lurking there, just waiting for me to take a breath before it sprang back up! Pulling did not work at all for me in the beginning- I had huge areas that were just covered with it. Digging deeply and repeatedly throughout a couple of seasons did help manage/weaken it. (I've come to believe I will never eradicate it). If you do pull, try to follow the roots back to the mother plant - there's usually one huge one that sends out all the runners. The new shoots that come up will be easier and closer to the surface. But try not to miss a season - they're like little Gremlins & will spread & grow stronger if you turn your back on them :) Linlily, I think I might try the Eco Blend. I've decided not to use the round-up. In good conscious, I just can't, with all the wildlife we have around here. Thanks for something else to try. And rouge21 - container growing is the way to go - just don't let the little buggers root from the bottom of your container or crawl over the side, lol.

Definitely don't burn the stuff. PI can be controlled via mechanical means, but it takes removal of all roots and 2-3 years of persistent removal of new young shoots to do the job. PI also spreads by seed. If you have mature vines spreading in the area or growing up trees, and don't deal with them effectively, it will keep coming back. The roots can be quite extensive. If you have vines growing up trees, then cutting the vine and treating the cut with an appropriate herbicide works well. If you have well established large PI vines in the area, root removal is difficult. Treatment followed by mowing/cutting and then followed by retreatment is pretty effective. As an alternative to triclopyr, glyphosate (e.g., Roundup) is effective on young green growth. I've had little success in the past with glyphospate on mature, vining PI. There is now a combination product that contains both glyphosate + triclopyr udner the Roundup trademark as Poison Ivy Plus Tough Brush Killer made for control of PI, PO poison sumac, etc. Some say the classic Trimex mix works reasonably well, but requires several repeated applications. More on PI control via the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Poison Ivy Control

I hate anything with thorns and lawn violets which are taking over my flower beds (if they are native, I'm not sure). The one redeeming thing about violets is if there's a nuclear winter, I'm sure they will survive, and all parts of the violets are edible. I don't develop a rash from Phacelia, but my allergies go wild each year after seed are set and I pull up plants to scatter around the property for more flowers. I can spend about 10 minutes on the job, and then I have to go inside and wash my hands and face and change clothes to recover. There's a long list of plants that can cause contact dermatitis just like poison ivy, so not all outbreaks can be blamed on it.

Katie, the property is lovely! Welcome to the New Eng forum. Before doing anything else, I would walk around the property taking lots of photos. It will give you a record of where you started and so give you a way to measure progress, help you plan, and assist in IDing and keeping track of what is there now that might benefit from moving to another spot. IME, things that look fairly awful can often be trimmed back and replanted elsewhere and if appropriately positioned can become lovely plants. At my previous house I planted a wooded slope entirely with half-dead rhododendrons that were taken to the dump by a local wholesale nursery. I hard pruned them, planted them, and the current homeowner now has a maintenance-free area that is spectacular in spring when the rhodies are blooming, and quietly lovely the rest of the year as the native groundcovers have returned. Before planting, it was a log landing where logs were stockpiled and the log trucks were loaded. Plants can be surprisingly expensive, so any that you can save that might be useful either as a permanent plant or as a temporary placeholder should be kept. Also, being on a hill, bare ground won't be your friend. Besides the issues with weed seeds sprouting, you will find that any large precipitation events or snow melt will cause erosion, so ground will always need to be covered, either by plants or by a layer of leaves. So any hostas that you haven't thrown out, keep to plant in beds you have cleared, and then use leaves to mulch around them. It doesn't have to be a forever planting, but will be low maintenance and will reduce the amount of weeding you will have to do by blocking light. The leaves will make any weeds that do sprout easier to pull. You may also find that you like hostas if planted with other groundcovers and shade perennials rather than on their own. I would take photos of the vines and shrubs in your beds. Be sure to take at least one of the whole bush and one that shows a branch or two relatively close up. There is a Name that Plant forum where you can get them IDed and then you can decide if you can use them, and if not, the best way to remove them. I have two favorite tools for clearing brush and saplings: a pair of oversized adjustable pliers which I use to try pulling anything of less than 1/2" diameter, since if you get the roots out it can't resprout, and a super-duty weed whacker that has in addition to the string trimmer (which rarely gets used), two metal blades, one for softer stems like brambles, and one for woody stems up to 2" or so. After that DH gets out the chainsaw. Anything that I can't pull up by the roots with my pliers, I cut to the ground and use a squirt bottle of concentrated glysophate herbicide to put a thin line on the outer rim of the fresh cut surface just where the bark meets the wood. Sometimes I need to repeat this twice over the course of a couple of years, but that's usually enough to kill anything. Be sure to wear appropriate clothing, especially gloves and eye protection. I also wear long sleeves and pants since we have a lot of poison ivy, and when using power tools I use ear protection as well. You may find your lot too steep for a brush hog, which is essentially a large scale, heavy duty mower that can cut through brush. Some are walk behind, and we have a tractor-pulled brush hog. They are great in the right circumstance, but I think would be quite challenging to use on your property. I notice you have some groundcovers - photo three looks like it might be Vinca AKA periwinkle AKA myrtle, and you mentioned pachysandra. Neither are spectacular, but in the right setting such as used under shrubs, will help make borders that seem to fit your needs for low maintenance and will help provide a transition from lawn to woods. There are lots and lots of other groundcovers and low-maintenance shade perennials and shrubs you can use, and the combination of various shapes, textures and colors can give you a lovely garden. Here is Marie's, which is one of the most gorgeous shade gardens I've ever seen. She has a suburban lot that's smaller than yours but is planted border to border, and there is some lawn. Mine is more interspersed into the edges of my native woodlands. Native rhododendron hybrids on a shady slope This spot has almost full shade and has various groundcovers plus a mountain laurel and 2 rhododendrons, one evergreen and one deciduous. There are several other rhodies along this woodland edge, but I couldn't find a decent photo of it. This area I have planted with shade-tolerant deciduous flowering trees and shrubs and am slowly filling in with native groundcovers. Other than the grassy area it is all mulched with free wood shavings and leaves. (Please pardon the trays of potted seedlings which spent the winter here out of the way of the plow.) The two threads linked below have shade plant ideas, and you might well be able to get divisions of some of these plants at local plant swaps or from gardeners here who are thinning things out. Zone 6 Shade Garden plant help Easy shade-tolerant ground cover? Since you want lawn, I'd start by figuring out your areas of at least half day sun (preferably more) and designating those as lawn. You can have grass in other areas, but in all reality, you won't want to spend the time trying to make the whole thing look wonderful - it would be a never-ending, unsuccessful chore. And on the positive side, the areas that don't grow as strongly won't need mowing as often. In New England, September is the best time to seed a lawn since the ground is warm, but the days are shorter and starting to cool off some, so the grass will sprout, but be less likely to be water stressed. There are seed mixtures for shade as well as for sun, so you will want to taylor what you plant to the amount of sun. With your slope, you may find that hydroseeding is more successful since the seed is mixed with cellulose mulch and sprayed on, so it is less likely to wash downhill if you have a heavy rain. As others have said, however, you may find that your current grass comes back better than expected once the weather warms up. One grass-like plant that grows well for me in shade is the native sedge Carex pensylvanica which grows to perhaps 6" and never needs mowing. I have quite a bit of it growing naturally. Your former pool area looks nice and flat now, so I would decide how you want to use that: lawn, veggie gardens, ornamental gardens, patio, putting green, or whatever, or even a combination of the two. I think if sunny enough, a round lawn with a rim of low maintenance flowering perennials would be lovely, and I've seen some gorgeous round ornamental and veggie gardens. A word of caution about fire . . . You live in an area with a lot of combustible material, and most towns have ordinances that control what, when, and how you can burn for reasons of safety. Wildfire/brushfires in wooded housing are a nightmare for firefighters. So for instance in my town, you need a permit unless snow completely covers the ground, and permits are only granted after 5:00 when most of the town's volunteer firefighters are available. This time of year (after snowmelt and before green-up) is the worst for brush fires since the surface of the ground usually has lots of fuel, and the sun is bright enough to dry the surface quickly, even in the woods. Sparks can start a fire that with a little wind can quickly get out of control. If I were in your situation, I wouldn't do any burning of debris since it will rot down on its own and will improve your soil in the process. We either mow leaves into the lawn or compost them (your blowing them into the woods or onto the perimeter beds to control weeds is just fine if you don't want to formally compost them in piles) and sticks can be piled out of sight in the woods to slowly decompose. There are many animals that will value brush piles for shelter. Remember that you don't need to do everything at once. I like to do an overall general plan that shows where I will have lawn, high maintenance ornamental beds, low maintenance ornamental beds, paths, compost, sitting areas, etc., but then I work on just one or two areas at a time. This time of year is great for removing woody weeds since the ground is soft and moist and not much is growing yet. See if you could print several copies of your plot plan and find an elevation map to help as well, and you can use those to try out ideas on paper. Think about things such as areas for trash and compost, how you will get from place to place (steps, formal paths, over the grass, etc.), areas for special interests such as badminton or other sports or bird feeders, sitting areas as well as gardens you can see from windows in the house (such as in an office or by the kitchen sink or from the couch) and whether building terraces with walls to increase your flat areas is worth the work. Once you have a plan, you can decide how to best put your vision into place a piece at a time. As others have said, having mostly lush lawn with all your trees and the slope isn't reasonable, but you can have a beautiful yard with at least some nice lawn and various other beautiful areas to enjoy.