More vinca

You thought my vinca cleanup and trimming project last week was the last you'd see of this vigorous groundcover for a while, right?

Well, you were wrong! I have another patch of out-of-control vinca in one of the front beds.

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I should mention that I let this plant spread much too far in this bed last year, as you'll soon see. Would you believe that there's a retaining wall behind there somewhere?

There are some other vines here too, like this ivy:

I started the same way I did before, by pulling out handfuls of vines:

After I got all of the "loose" vines out, I went at the plants that had "escaped", like these growing up around the front of the retaining wall:

And the ones that had spread up into the bed itself:

I really just want the vinca to grow at the base of the retaining wall closest to the driveway, where the wall is tallest and can use some softening. Everything else has to go!

I dug all of the plants I could reach out:

There are some that are growing in the cracks between the blocks, and those are fine:

I'll just keep them pruned back.

So that's looking pretty good, but I may as well do a bit more cleanup while I'm here, getting the ivy back into check:

and removing the Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra).

It looks so empty now. Sigh.

It won't be long before the grass starts growing again and I'll be able to plant up this area. Of course I'll be cursing the vinca and ivy again before I know it too.

Still though, I don't think I'd ever want to remove these vines completely.

(If you're in the St. Louis area and want some of these variegated vinca plants, please let me know! I kept many of the plants I dug just in case.)

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