Get a sheep, or a goat, or both. 😀

I don't know of any pet-friendly herbicide, do they even exist? And what does pet friendly mean, they can lick it for example? I doubt.
Roundup is commonly used, spraying 4 times/year controls unwanted vegetation. But although I haven't seen anything dead yet and after a day it's safe to use the area, I don't consider it pet-friendly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_(herbicide)

Which leads to another suggestion, in case you don't find a herbicide to suit your needs: ground cover cloth/landscape fabric (I don't know exactly what they are called in English but a google search with these terms will make it obvious). Then if you like it you can also throw a piece of synthetic/artificial grass on top of it and have a big aesthetic upgrade.

weedeewee wrote on 2023-07-17, 17:51:

Get a sheep, or a goat, or both. 😀

User name grants an honorable first reply to the thread 😁

Anything with glyphosate will do. I also mix in a liter of 20% vinegar because there are a few weeds out there highly resistant to glyphosate even in higher concentration. Also apply in the middle of the heatwave so it will massacre every living thing within a day and lasts maybe a month before you need to do it again.
Pet friendliness doesn't really matter here because pets would literally need to drink a bottle of the stuff to get affected, rolling in glyphosated grass will do nothing. It has very low toxicity. Also no effective alternatives to glyphosate exists that is available to the public. Vinegar in itself is useless.
I also use a AL-KO GTE 550 Premium, it's a medium power strimmer with excellent balance and low weight, the cutting line is strong and replacement is easy. Corded so you don't have to charge the battery every 20 minutes.

Roundup is poison, i would stay out of it, it goes also into the soil, cats and dogs eat grass sometimes.,we get food from nature, i would think twice before using roundup or similar products in my garden. Can you grow something else there, some flowers or bushes, maybe even some fruit trees?

After trimming the weeds, you can use use natural mulch to cover the area where they used to grow. Wood chips are good for this purpose. They will prevent plant growth while placed on top of the soil. However, should you ever decide to replant something there, you can simply remove them and the soil underneath will be very fertile.

As others have mentioned, cats sometimes nibble on grass to help with digestion and expelling hair balls. They also roll on grass and then lick their fur, so poison substances are a bad choice.

I find strimmers very frustrating, so I have two solutions to weeds:

1. Flamethrower - shoots a stream of paraffin across a burning wick (or something like that) - wonderful roar when it heats up and is ready to use. Be careful not to burn your shed or fences down. Sheen x300 for example.

2. Brush cutter - spinning metal triple blade that makes short work of tough weeds and even some shrubs (lol). Loud hum when it's up to speed. Some have interchangeable strimmer heads. Ryobi or whatever, lots to choose from.

Both are great fun. Keep away from pets while in use of course.

I got this Stihl Trimmer FSA 90 R from Mowpart, and it's doing a great job, especially cutting the grass from hard-to-access places.

I got it for 890$ with a 5% discount using the code 5OFF from DontPayFull. There are a lot of deals and discounts for many other stores. You might find there more great deals and discounts that will fit your budget.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-07-17, 20:19:

After trimming the weeds, you can use use natural mulch to cover the area where they used to grow. Wood chips are good for this purpose.

I second the wood chip method.

You can also use vinegar to kill weeds. It is pretty effective. You can buy it in 3 liter cans made for weeds, I also use it to clean electronics.