We all have different yards and different uses for yards.

I have a large front yard and a large back yard. I have flower beds galore in both the front and back, and I have 2 20' rows of raised bed garden and another 10' raised bed garden, and i'll probably add some more this spring.

My front yard is where my kids play football and baseball with me, and they also play with the neighborhood kids as well. I chose the house we did b/c it had a big yard that i could play with my kids in. I'm goign to have a nice lawn, and i'm going to spray it for weeds i don't like. I like clovers. I don't spray them. I don't like crab grass, or any other weed that picks my feet, and i don't like wearing shoes. Hell i cut the grass and weed eat without shoes. I'm going to spray the crab grass, as well as that other ridiculously growing velcro weed. They are a nuisance, and the only solution to them is spraying them with chemicals.

What all of you are talking about rescaping a yard, that's for cookie cutter houses and New Orleans houses that are so close to each other you can hear the couple next door when they are doing it. Those houses have no yards to actually do anythign worthwhile in. If you want to turn your whole yard into a flower bed, so be it. I'd probably do the same thing.

But for those of us with large yards that actually spend time playing in them, there is no other solution to maintaining that yard without chemicals. I'm not handpicking crab grass to weed it, and there's nothing i can do to stop it from coming up each year b/c i don't control what my neighbors do with their yard.
I also don't go spraying the yard 10 times a year for every single weed. I don't care about every weed, just the ones that pick my feet.

What is your natural solution to my weed problem in my large yard that i use to play football and baseball in with my kids? And i don't mean that condescending. I'm not a tree hugging hippie moron, but i enjoy nature more than most and would always do what i can to respect it and keep it beautiful. Nothing pisses me off more than when i'm sitting on a beautiful beach or on a beautiful hike in the mountains and find trash.
But i still don't get what we are talking about here and what are my realistic solutions to not "soaking my yard with chemicals"?