I just want to be able to walk out here.

What’s an easy cheap way to maintain this area? I don’t want to be walking through weeds and prickles and eventually want to have a long clothes line here.

It seems the previous owners tried to pour rocks? Which would be great if it was all just round little rocks but it’s a patchy & ugly & a mess and overrun with weeds. So I assume just adding rocks doesn’t work.

I really dislike using chemicals ☹️