I have found that a pitch fork works best for me. Deep enough to loosen the soil around the tap root and doesn't pull up a lot of soil like some of the grabber type dandelion pullers. (I have one of those too). I have the tool that is like a dandelion pry bar, but it will bend if the ground is hard.

I used the weeding tool that you describe, a hoe, and a weed claw that picks up most of the taproot of these broadleaf weeds.

I also use weed liquid killers for large patches of small weed, especially if they are mixed in with the grasses that I wanted to keep.

Some people say that the lawn stuff you can buy at stores like Home Depot is strong enough for their yard, and you don't have to pay for a professional lawn service. If that works for you, it may be worth it to spend some money a few times a year to keep the weeds down. Even with a large property, there may be a certain area that you want to focus on.

My go-to weeding tool is a hori hori knife. A great all-around utility tool for the garden. It's not for large areas, though--just for spot weed treatment.

Thank you for sharing your methods. The hori hori knife seems like a good choice, it would be more like the in between the dandelion weeder (thingamajjingy) that Marti described better as a dandelion prybar and the small handheld spade I use now. Will have to find me one of those.

Weed claw - is that a good one to have as well? Do you have a specific one you'd recommend. I saw one on a drill, a hand held on a long handle from fiskars or am I looking at the wrong thing?

This is btw only for my flower beds and maintenance weed pullling where I'd like to minimize disturbing the mulch as much as possible. Our house is built on old pasture land so we don't really try to have nice grass or worry about the weeds growing in there. They tend to keep it green and my DH mows it regularly.

For most weeds, a spade works just fine for me. However, I get a lot of young oak sprouts from all the acorns and their root systems seem deeper and stronger than most of the soft weeds. For those and the more belligerent weeds, I just use a pair of old pliers and grab the weed/oak sprout as close to the ground as possible and slowly pull straight up. Works like a a charm!

Got me a hori hori knife and I love that thing. Made things so much easier than the spade I was using. Now I'm wondering how I lived without it. Still battling the nutgrass though, but trying to dig more up as it comes up. Hopefully I can at least stunt it.

I got a hori hori tool too! I love it for dividing plants. Thank you cscruton!

I use my hands or my boot or an old spade. Or I bury them with fallen leaves.

I mostly use my hands, but use a hoe to remove patches of grass. It's back breaking though; my grass is really thick.