Now that it's winter, I'm looking over my 50+ year old mixed deciduous hedge, pruning out all the junk that has wormed its way in. This hedge was such a monstrous task to deal with that I barely got to the forsythias and thinned them out -- I had no idea how to tackle the rest as it was so thick. That was several years ago.

My son and I were taking out the worst large offenders this afternoon--the thorny locusts, blackberries and other sundries. But the worst (aside from the Japanese honeysuckle everywhere) is the bittersweet. There are vines as thick as my arm in among the base of the suckering shrubs. THe canopies of the shrubs are overlaid with the fruiting bittersweet berries. When we pull them out, the berries are falling everywhere on the ground which is probably going to lead to even more of the dang stuff.

I have no idea how to get rid of this vine and how you treat the ground where there's mature shrubs growing to prevent it from germinating. What is the best way to attack this problem as I'm working on the hedge? I need a plan of action!

Thanks.