Bittersweet

[minh_han]

I have a problem with the invasive plant Chinese bittersweet. It's a vine that grows on and over everything, choking all life out. It has taken over entire trees, the seedlings have landed in the garden and run amok through the fence, and the vines are growing through cracks in the shed.

As much as I try to pull them out, the roots send runners everywhere, and one little piece of vine can sprout roots, leaves, and restart. Once I chopped up a bunch of the stuff into little pieces and put it at the bottom of the compost bin, thinking the heat would kill it. No, it just made more babies.

So does anyone have suggestions on how to get rid of the stuff?

And, I would like to "get back at it" so to speak and do something useful with all the bittersweet vine that I take out. Can you make furniture out of it or anything? Any other suggestions?

[Minuteman]

I spent an entire day reclaiming the yard in one of my previous houses. Fortunately the roots don't grow too deep with this stuff, but the only thing I foud that worked was to pull it all out by hand and then just using round-upwhen it tries to creep back in.