I have vines growing up in the middle of my bushes. What to do?

They look bad.

At least once a year, I rip or cut out parts I can see, but that still
leaves the stems and they grown back.

Some have grown 20 feet up the trees that are in the middle of the
bushes.

How can I now use, or have used herbicide, without killing the evergreen
bushes that surround them?

What did I do wrong in the first place?

There are also two trees, some kind of fir and an arbor vitae in the
midst of the bushes, which have a picket fence on the far side. About
once a year, I crawl under the bushes and remove litter that blows from
up to 100 yards upwind and gets stuck under the bushes. Sometimes I've
cut off the vines near the earth when I'm there, but that doesn't remove
the roots or a couple inches of stem. Could I have done more?

(Mostly litter that escapes from the garbage cans when being emptied
into the garbage truck. At least the litter can't be seen (except a
little from the yard next door, if they bend down) and it doesn't grow.)

First step after ripping or cutting out the vines is to throw them on
the ground. Can I just leave them to be cut up by the lawn mower or
can more vines sprout from the chopped up stems and leaves?


A small part is English ivy. That doesn't look so bad, but .... Does
ivy kill the trees it grows on, or do dying trees attract ivy? So far
these two trees look okay, except one has snow damage, but another tree
that I didn't care about** had both a lot of ivy and death.
Coincidence? **Heavily snow damaged, and a tulip tree had sprouted 12
feet away that is 20 feet tall already.