It's some sort of grass. The exact type doesn't really matter. The Bermuda looks completely dormant in that picture. If so, the easiest way to kill the weeds would be to use glyphosate (brand name roundup). Glyphosate will only work on plants that are green. It's a nonselective weed killer, so it will kill anything green that it ends up on, but if the Bermuda is dormant, it won't take the glyphosate in and kill it.

It might be pokeweed, Phytolacca americana. I can't tell from the photo. Here's a thread on pokeweed with some photos of a large plant: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/namegal/msg0816284825135.html?14 Here are photos of younger plants: http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/singlerecord.asp?id=270 If you can't remove all the root (which you must do in order to get rid of pokeweed), you can put a few drops of Round-up concentrate (or generic glyphosate concentrate) on it or pour boiling water in the hole with the root. If it sprouts again from the root, repeat.

Hiii, Jamie!!! *waving happily* So good to see you posting! I'll bet anything your vine is skunk vine (named for the very obvious reason you described so...ummm...elegantly! Hehe!) Balsam apple gets bright orange fruit which pop open and spread big seeds around. And it has little flowers like eileen mentions. It is very easy to pull out, and very tender, too. Easily crushed. If your vine resists pulling out, has no flowers or bright orange fruits, and really, REALLY smells bad, I'm guessing skunk vine. (Balsam apple smells unpleasant, but not quite as noxious as skunk vine.) Both are very invasive and hard to get rid of. I suggest you pull and cut all you can, and then carefully apply Round Up to the rest using a paintbrush to be sure you don't spray any on your hedge. Good luck with it. There are some folks who tie sprigs of lavender and other things to float in their birdbaths to keep them clean longer, but I really believe in just rinsing and refilling daily, myself. I do it when I water the plants in the morning, and it's pretty quick. I use the jetspray setting to splash all the dirty water out, and then I refill with one of the regular, softer settings, et voila! Done in 60 seconds. Okay maybe a tiny bit longer, but not much. If I have a lot of birds, I do it twice a day, but more because they splash all the water out than because of dirty water. Don't worry about algae in the bottom of the birdbath. It doesn't cause any real problems, and frankly, I think it looks more natural than sparkling white stone, but that's an aesthetic thing. As for the real scrub it up and leave it shining cleaning, a stiff brush is usually all you need, but you don't have to worry if you want to bleach anything. Just rinse it carefully before refilling. Bleach evaporates very quickly, and doesn't leave any residue that is harmful to birds. Soap, no. Bleach, not a problem if you really need it and you rinse well. But usually a scrubbing with a brush will take care of it. (BTW, when I say I don't mind how algae looks, I just mean the darker, mossy looking type. Not that nasty, slimy string algae that you get once in a great while. THAT has to go!) Good luck with it all, and don't be such a stanger. We miss you. (And the doggies, too. My little Maks is a year old now, and so darn cute! He and Potter are real buds.) Marcia

Here's another picture.