u/Foreign-Life-5640

Hello! I need suggestions on a way to clear an area for a water feature. We have an area next to the corner of our house and the side of our deck. Inside this area is where we are putting the water feature. There is a tree that is staying. The area is slightly overgrown by creeping Charlie, nightshade and other random native things popping up. We left it neglected bc to be honest we didn’t get around to putting the water feature in last year due to life happening. My spouse wants to use a chemical and spray to get rid of everything (not the small-ish tree) so we can put the feature in and plant other things. I refuse to use chemicals. We can’t use the rototiller due to tree roots. How can we safely kill the unwanted overgrowth to start our project?