You should be pruning in late winter and you must leave some of last years wood in order to get fruit. If you prune off all of last years wood, you will get nothing. You can tell the difference between one yr and older wood by the color of the bark.

Last May my wife said, "Do you think you could weed out the vinca in the rock garden?" "What's vinca?" I asked her. She showed me. The innocuous looking shiny green plant had invaded almost every inch of a 50-foot by 50-foot rock garden she had neglected over the years. "Sure," I said. I tried pulling it up by hand and realized I was in trouble. I went to the Internet and asked how to go about it. Move, hire much help, or spray with RoundUp, I was told. None of these was an option. So I have experimented with a number of techniques. Fourteen months later, here are the results. 1. Where the vinca is growing on rock with very little sod - Take a long crowbar, stick it under the vinca, pry it up and roll it like sod. Then leave the roots to bake in the sun. Rating: 100% success but takes brawn. 2. Where there is a flat spot with no trees or other obstacles - Lay down 6-mil black plastic to cut off light and water, leave it for three months, then remove. In the fall, use a pronged hoe to remove the dry roots. Then leave the roots to bake in the sun. Rating: 100% success almost one year later, but the plastic was not very attractive. 3. Where there are trees, bushes and other obstacles - Lay down cardboard and cover with 4 inches of wood chips or 8 inches of leaves. Rating: 99.9% after 14 months, but takes considerable organic matter. This technique has the advantage of enriching the soil. The vinca tries to grow through holes in the cardboard and around tree trunks and has to be ripped out by hand. When I lift up the plastic, and dig around, the vinca roots are still alive. Who knows what will happen when the cardboard decomposes, but I am hopeful. 4. Everywhere, every week - I do regular scouting expeditions to spot stubborn plants popping up here and there. Try to pull up the roots, not just the shoot. I don't think we'll have to move.

Looks like Blue Dawn Flower to me. It's commonly sold in California and is not particularly "invasive" here. It does spread by runner and rhizome, but because of our climate it can't easily survive the summer dry period without supplimental watering. Yes, in yards it can get a bit overwhelming, but I wouldn't worry too much about the fence; if you to cut the vines at the ground and tried to pick up the resulting tangle it would be quite light. It also climbs by twining and should not deteriorate the wood of the fence. As far as I'm aware there would be no way to keep the plant on the neighbor's side of the fence only; any cutting or poisoning that you were to do to your side would invariably affect the neighbor's side... Mike

Mary, not a non-chemical method, but one which will kill the vine without damaging the rhubarb: Better done in the fall but may still work now-with lopping shears, small saw, etc, cut vine stems near ground. Immediately apply high-concentration glyphosate, ie 40% solution, on cut surfaces. This requires a tiny amount of chemical and offers near-complete control of what plants get that herbicide. The reason it works best in fall/winter is that at those times of year, sap in plants is tending to get pulled down into the roots, so this aids the applicator in directing that chemical to where it will kill entire plant. we use this methodology all the time to control invasive woodland shrubs like buckthorn and non-native honeysuckles. It really works well. +oM