Every little segment of morning glory stem left on/in the soil will sprout a new plant. You can use the "artist" approach to weed control. Make a mixture of "round up" paint it on the weed's leave with a fine 1/2 in. artist brush. A lot of work today but nothing tomorrow.

Abby

Your county extension agent should be able to help you identify what you've got and give you information about controlling it.

You may have bindweed, which looks like pretty morning glories, but isn't! Bindweed is not nearly as easy to get rid of. It is a pernicious weed and deep-rooted, will develop roots from every cut piece, and has an underground root system that can spread through acres of land. It's so difficult to get rid of that its presence can devalue the price of farmland! I have it in my garden area, so I know all about it! I've pulled/uprooted a vine or used RoundUp one day and two days later its twin has popped up right beside it.

In the short run, if it's bindweed, you want to prevent it from strangling your vegetable crops, so mowing the vines when they appear may be your best temporary control.

But as I say, check with your county extension office. They'll be able to tell you if bindweed is a problem in your area or if it's bird-seeded morning glories from somebody's flower garden. And they should be able to advise you about controlling it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Field Bindweed

I've never had to deal with bindweed, but am thinking solarizing the soil would work on it. Solarizing works on bermuda (another evil weed that spreads quickly by seeds, runners and underground roots) when nothing else would work. I'd tried sheet composting (lasagna gardening), scraping with a tractor and hand digging while my ex tried RoundUp, and none of those worked. Solarizing did.

knittlin

Solarizing works temporarily for the areas limited to the solarized area, but bindweed, if present, can quickly rise time and time again from the same place and can have literally acres of underground roots. That's why it's advisable to check and see what you've got. Then you can decide the best treatment for your situation. I hope for her sake that phantom white just has some wayward garden morning glory vines.

Bindweed isn't something I'd wish on anybody. It can take years to eradicate. Look at the discussion below. It's one of several LONG GW discussions about how to control or eradicate it, mostly unsuccessful. But this guy has given people hope that they can get rid of it if they keep at it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bindweed

It's actually a little of everything. Morning Glories mostly though. There has been some bind weed, but not really enough to cause much damage. I usually have Jimson weed too, as well as some spiky seeded grass type stuff. I try to pull the vine seedlings as soon as I see them but it gets overwhelming if I miss even one day; the whole garden is covered! The poor beans end up dying out long before their time.

Abby

I've had both morning glories and bindweed, and both are evil! No morning glories at this property, but some bindweed here. I've been fighting it at least 10 years, but constantly pulling up the vines is slowly eliminating it. I wish I had been more aggressive when it first showed up!

Bindweed in my garden has only been vanquished by diligent hand pulling. It takes a year but it works. Every day or every other day, nip off all the green growth of bindweed emerging from the soil. It will use up energy in its tap root to make more leaves.

Eventually, the plant will be spent and will not survive the winter. But you have to stay on top of it. Never stop picking at it, not even for a week. It makes a great green manure and/or weed tea. :)

Man, that bindweed sounds nasty! I'm sure glad I don't have to deal with it. I wonder if using black plastic instead and leaving it on for longer, until the roots are starved out and spent from trying to grow, would work? (Got that idea when I read another comment on that thread: "Bindweed also doesn't do well when it is shaded so if you can shade it, it comes up really spindly. The vegetables do a good job of shading.") It'd mean you wouldn't get to have a garden for the year unless you built raised beds on top of the plastic, but judging from the comments on that thread it sounds like it would be worth it.

Phantom, good to hear you don't have much bindweed. I'm still thinking the solarization would work on everything else you listed (it's worked for me on our native morning glories and jimson weed ~ don't know for sure what the spikey grass stuff is you mentioned, but there's one that sounds like that here and it killed it, too), but you might have to still pull some of the bindweed apparently. When done right, especially keeping things moist and tucking the edges completely, solarizing kills the plants and the seeds, so atleast you'll only have one thing to fight instead of numerous things.

The only other thing I can suggest is to plant your veggies closer together. I've started doing that (bush beans three or four inches apart, squash eight or so inches apart) and they shade out most all the weeds. You do get a lower yield per plant, but more yield per square foot.

If it's really bad I would try the "nuke it" approach. About a month before you plant anything, spray everything in the garden with roundup and then apply a pre emergent. Let a month go by and turn all of the dead stuff into the soil and plant away!

Here is a link that might be useful: Win Free Garden Stuff

That won't kill it, MNG.