Yeah, it is a lot of digging. I already dug out all of the roots I could, which meant digging a waist deep hole and taking half a ton of the root stuff to the recycling center (to be burned). But now I'm dealing with the remaining roots trying to spread.

When I dig out the shoots, I always try to get more than this year's growth, and hope that laws of thermodynamics will eventually prevail.

The damn thing is almost dead by now. I get a dozen shoots a week or so.