We have at least 10, and prolly closer to 12, acres of woodland with Virginia Creeper growing everywhere, so clearly I haven't spent a lot of time removing it.

I try to keep it outside the garden, though it climbs the garden fence sometimes and/or sends runners thru the fencing. I just pull it up and cut it back because I don't like using herbicides in or near my garden. It is a pretty determined grower, though, so to really get rid of it, you'll need to use a brush-killer type herbicide. Any brush-killer type herbicide ought to kill it, but the underground root system is vast and you'll have to treat any re-growth regularly for a couple of years to get it all. Because those brush killer type herbicides contain some chemicals that persist for a long period of time, (the same ones that cause killer compost and killer manure), any vegetation treated with those herbicides should go into the trash and not the compost pile so that you don't end up with herbicide carryover in your compost.

If I was going to use one of those products in close proximity to my garden, I wouldn't apply it with a sprayer because of the risk of herbicide drift. I'd paint it onto the foliage with a foam paint brush or paint roller. I'd wait for the treated foliage to die and then I'd cut it off, bag it up and dispose of it. Then I'd watch for regrow the and treat it when it appears. To make the herbicide more effective, if you can find anywhere on the plant at the ground level where there is thick enough woody growth that it looks like a main stem, you could drill holes in that stem or stump type structure and pour the herbicide into the holes at the same type you are treating the foliage.

You ought to be able to kill it, but you could get regrowth for a couple of years, so be vigilant.

Then, sit back and wait for new plants to pop up because they will. Birds and other wildlife eat the berries and "plant" the seeds for you. There is nothing you really can do to prevent that. When new plants pop up, they are easier to kill while young.

Thanks for the info. Since it is all in my asparagus bed, does that mean I'll probably lose it?

I doubt it. If your asparagus plants are well-established, I don't think anything will kill them. (Well, technically, you can get rid of asparagus by repeatedly cutting it back to the ground nonstop for a couple of years until it finally runs out of energy and quits resprouting.)

If I had to remove Virginia Creeper from an asparagus bed, I'd dig and pull it out of the asparagus bed and avoid using a herbicide in the asparagus bed itself. As long as your ground isn't rock-hard the Virginia creeper is easy to pull up. The longer you leave it, the more deep-rooted it becomes and the harder it is to get rid of.

Keeping the asparagus bed well-mulched after you get the VC out of it will help a lot. That way, if VC pops up or sprouts from the berry seeds planted by birds, it will root in the mulch, keeping its roots more shallow and easier to pull out. The worst thing you can do is ignore it because it then will root in deeply as it continues to grow and will spread like mad.

I love Virginia Creeper as an understory plant in the woodland. Many song birds and other wildlife rely on its berries as a part of their food supply. I sure don't want it getting into my garden beds and setting up residence there because I know it is extremely hard to remove without the use of herbicides once it is well-rooted.

Thanks, Dawn. I planted the asparagus bed last year.

You're welcome. I'd hate to see you lose your new asparagus bed to VC. After the asparagus bed has been there a couple more years, nothing will crowd it out! Mine is like a forest with all the plant roots interconnected in one big mat. Asparagus won't hardly die on its own, and it is hard to kill unless you're trying to kill it on purpose, but it is a lot happier when you can keep the weeds out. The weeds I fight hardest in asparagus are lambsquarters, Johnson grass, and bindweed. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to keep the asparagus beds free of those three, but the nearest Virginia creeper is about 12' away, growing just outside (and sometimes climbing) the garden fence and I am determined to keep it out of the asparagus because it might be the one plant that really could outgrow asparagus.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is VC. Here are a couple of pics. Can you let me know, please? It doesn't seem to be like what I am reading or seeing pics of other than it is going crazy!

Your pictures have no VC in them.

I agree with Moni. I don't know what that plant is, but it in no way resembles Virginia Creeper.

I don't know what that is either but it is a small annual plant that I've pulled a lot of this year. VC is a perrenial vine that can grow 40-50 ft into a tree and develop vines as thick as my wrist. AND drop several hundred seeds a year into the azalea beds below. Some people call VC "poison oak" because it is a vine and the leaflets look superficially like poison ivy leaflets. But VC has 5 leaflets with a bit more serrating than PI.

No need for weed killer for the little annual. Just pull it out before it seeds and you're done. Then mulch your wanted plants.

Whatever it is, we had it in dry shade under a silver maple on the west side of our house in Fort Worth in the mid-80s through the mid-90s and I just pulled it out every year. It took a decade of pulling (and I never let them live long enough to flower and set seed) the new ones before the year finally arrived that none of them popped up out of the ground.

honeyvine milkweed sounds nice. i have those weeds in the photos too and just pull them constantly. what i have that i hate and can't get rid of is bindweed in my flower garden.

I'm really excited this isn't VC! I had two people visiting that said it was, but it didn't resemble the online pics. So glad! Thank you so much!

Jessaka, I thought it was bindweed for awhile, I have that, too. But it's in the future asparagus bed and I don't want it to get a foothold. I can't reach it, going to have to get DH to pull it.