Both now with a smaller garden and when I had the farm set up I found the electrc , manpack engined & and wheeled husquvana strimmers invaluable .
The later two worked well for me , even when it was chucking it down with rain.
I learnt a long time ago that one years seeds is seven years weeds was so hurtgfully true so kept things short .
Re the slugs in the moggy food bowl they are eating the remaining traces of flesh .
/ meat ,fats and oils to get essential vitamins . I'm suspecting that they can actually smell the bowls which makes me think of standing an unwashed used food bowl in a tray of water into which I've dissolved a few slug pellets and covered it with weighted down wire to keep the dog and cast etc away .
It might be fairly easy with a bit of thought to make a simple partially enclosed pet & bird proof lodded bucket device using cat food as the bait .