De-Vining: Our Backyard Battle Becomes a War

Our yard has turned into a battle ground. First it was the battle of the weed garden. I pulled pavers, bricks, rocks, granite pieces, and tiles out of the "garden." All had been put there for decorative purposes, but we broken, mossy, buried, or all of the above. It also had a decorative fence around it that was rotting and coming apart. This was my first battle:

****After photos!****

The battle was done, but the war was just beginning!

I realized one day some of the bushes along my parking spot had a vine climbing it, twining around the branches and pulling down the whole bush. Then I began to look around the back yard and realized these vines were in all of the garden beds in the back yard. The vines are connected by large root systems throughout the beds, but at least they weren't in the front yard right. Well, as I sat on the front porch the next day, I saw a vine tendril climbing up one of the tulips. ARGH! They are every where! The previous owners composted so that probably didn't help.

The little vines spear up through the plants. See the little green tendrils

The vines grow together making themselves stronger and harder to get off.

This is one small flower bed's worth of vines:

I did some research online. I think it is call Bindweed Vine (a type of morning glory) which means I need to cut it back before it continues to spread. Either way, the only way to eradicate most invasive species of vine is to cut it off at the stem and prevent the roots from getting energy through the photosynthesis. Eventually, the vine will die. So I have years of vine cutting ahead of me. To bad this problem cannot be fixed with a coat of paint!

It starts.