If what you have is bindweed the worst thing you can do is pull it. Pulling it and breaking the roots actually stimulates the plant to grow more rapidly. You can get rid of it but it will take you a while. The idea is to weaken and exhaust the root so much that the plant dies. First of all, stop pulling it! You need to mow/weed whack/shear it to force it to keep putting out new growth. You want to keep it in the active growth phase and not let it get to the flowering or seed setting life stage. With continuous cutting the plant will/might start to grow extremely flat, it will hug the ground. At this point you'll need to switch to chemical warfare. Start spraying it with an herbicide containing glyphosate, i.e. Roundup and things like that. It need to be an herbicide that kills the root. Unfortunately if the bindweed has invaded a flower bed, you will have collateral damage. Shield the innocent as best you can. Don't try lifting plants to save them from the herbicide. If you get even the tiniest portion of a bindweed root you will spread it. While doing all this never let the plant flower even if you have to hand pick the blooms! Try to keep mowing/shearing it whenever possible. Watch for new plants trying to emerge away from the parent plant too. Keep after this mowing/cutting/herbicide routine until the plant freezes back this winter. Watch for new growth next year. You might have to do this routine for several years because of seed drop from previous ones. Even after the plants are gone you'll need to always be on guard for the stuff, it's a real pain. Good luck!

Sue, those underlined words are exactly what I'm talking about. It is a 'legitimate' link and the advertisers are paying iVillage for the use of the site. We were warned it was going to happen - look at the What's New section right over the top of the message list - and even told how to opt out of the ads. (Click on the connection under What's New that says "Please read this important announcement about new advertising.") But it's not working and we are not able to decline the ads right now. Tamara says they are working on it. Although I find the underlined connections annoying, I REALLY hate that someone looking at one of my posts might think I condone or even promote a company because there's a link to them in my post! But all of these links are automatically inserted at key words and it's all done by a company called IntelliTXT. I want to be able to opt out of seeing them AND having them attached to my posts, but I don't think that's going to be possible. Kate

Heres what I am doing I removed my deck , you need a rubber bungie strap ,2 eyebolts with locknuts and washers, now with the dek off of the mower remove the blade break spring, next ensure the blade belt control lever swings freely,now insert one end of the bungie strap into the hole on the blade control lever(where the pto spring goes) now stretching the bungie cord (yes the blade control lever will engage) find a path clear of any moving belts ,pullys ect to the outside of the deck . Now find a flat spot and drill a hole for one of the eyebolts and install the eyebolt,now remove the S hook from the bungie cord and push the bungie cord through the eyebolt(again ensure that you have a clear path nothing will touch the bungie strap when the blades are turning) now find a spot on the foot rest (clear under and on top ) install the other eyebolt. now put the s hook back on the free end of the bungie cord and install the blade brake spring. Now if you hook the bungie cord to the eyebolt on the footrest the blades should activate and when you unhook the bungie cord the blade brake will engage stopping the blades.

Yes Mike. It is a very handy tool. The bent tip makes it really useful. You can grab the base of the plant and jiggle the base to loosen the roots and pull it out. Very useful when reaching in tight spaces especially for succulents. In bonsai the back of the tool that likes a little spade is useful to tamp down the soil, smooth it out and tamp down moss on the soil. I have two of them because my wife seems to like it too and it disappears from my tool box from time to time. Come to think of it I have two of most tools.