The Bush from Hell!

Now that the weather is getting warmer we are trying to do some work on the yard as well as the house.  We have a bush that is taking over the entire landscaping.  It appears that this bush sends our runners and whenever it hits another plant it shoots up a new bush and chokes out what was there.  This thing is everywhere in the yard.  I don’t know what it is and would like anyone who has an idea to post a comment.

Last year I tried to get rid of a few of these bushes.  I read about a little trick online that appears to work.  What I did was cut the bush down as low to the ground as possible.  I then drilled a hole in the stump and dumped salt into the hole.  It appears that the stumps that I did this to are dead this year and the few branches that did pop up the leaves are already rotting and black.  Also, around the hold where the salt was dumped the wood is black.  I’m going to dump some more salt into the same holes and see if it kills the bushes even more.  This is a slow process but it appears to be working.

 

House Trim

Now that spring has arrived I’ve located a few new issues with the outside of the house.  I’m looking for some help.  The thing with this house is – I’ve never done this type of stuff before and I’m just learning as I go.
I was not happy to pull in my driveway one night after work and noticed that the wood trim under the gutter of the sunroom was completely rotted out.

I’m not quite sure how to fix this.  My assumption is that I need to get the gutter off and then look at the wood and hope that the studs are not rotted.  I looked on another part of the house and the trim appears to be molding???

Was this a trend back in the 1920’s?  Was this an update to the house?  So should I use molding or just some treated wood?  Anyone’s advice would be helpful.