How to Clean Vines From a Flower Bed

Morning glory is a tenacious vine that takes over quickly.

Depending on the type of weedy vine and the extent of the invasion, clearing vines from a flower bed can be a challenging and ongoing battle. Some weedy vines, like morning glory and blackberry, have a tenacious will to live and smother everything in sight. Other less-aggressive annual vines come out easily. Even the toughest vines will eventually relinquish their hold if you practice constant diligence in clearing and removing these invaders from the flower bed.

Things You'll Need

• Gloves
• Pruning shears
• Garden fork
• Shovel
• Mulch

Instructions

1. Unwrap vines from around the flowers. Use your finger tips to gently tease the vines off the flowers without causing damage.

2. Cut the vine into sections if it is wrapped tightly around the flowering plant, and remove all sections from the garden bed.

3. Trace the vine down to the soil. Dig under the soil and lift out as much of the root system as possible with a garden fork. Many perennial weedy vines regrow from small sections of roots left in the soil.

4. Remove all flowers and seed heads before the seeds disperse. For annual vines, removing the seed pods is often enough to eliminate the vines. For perennials, reducing the amount of seeds helps to keep new plants from growing but doesn't stop the spreading root system.

5. Place vines in the garbage or city refuse container. If you put them on the compost heap, the vines will likely return everywhere you spread the compost.

6. Mulch the flower bed after you remove all the vines. Spread straw, pine bark, sawdust, leaf mold or a similar organic material six inches deep around the flowers and established plants. The mulch suppresses some weed growth and seed germination.

7. Pull out vines as soon as they appear. Methodically pulling out vines before they flower will slow or eliminate them in a flower garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Know what you're dealing with. Identify poison oak and poison ivy before you start as they can cause a nasty skin rash. Never burn poison oak or ivy; the smoke contains toxic oils that can be dangerous if inhaled.

• While not poisonous, blackberries have sharp thorns. Wear protective clothing and eyewear when clearing blackberries and other thorny vines.

References

• Iowa State University; Weed Management in the Home Garden; Harlene Hatterman-Valenti et. al
• King County Noxious Weed Management; Field Bindweed (aka Morning Glory); 2007
• University of Florida; Controlling Weedy Vines in the Landscape; Theresa Friday; June 2011