I work for a small native garden coaching/installation start up that believes in effectively no herbicides (I disagree with the owner on this). We’re based in Chicago.
I was called for a consult with an older couple who were very physically limited. It was difficult to even watch them walk around the overgrown backyard. Their backyard is covered in Rose of Sharon saplings and small established bushes, from 2 mature shrubs that they had planted many years ago. There is a thicket of it that is smothering a three large hydrangea. It’s bad.
Also back there: Morning glory vines everywhere, lily of the valley, white snakeroot (native, but high quantities), and Virginia jumpseed (also native, but very profiling back there).
My only solution is the say “hire it out” to someone who can use herbicide. At this point, we may have the manpower for an initial clearing. We don’t have the time to be coming back at a frequent enough basis to actually keep this at bay without herbicides.
Oh, and they wanna keep one of them. Of course.