Trumpet vine!

I have an area that I would like to convert to a forest garden. Unfortunately, it there was a fence there before that was all grown up with trumpet vine. When I lived in town, I spent 20 years (unsuccessfully) trying to get rid of trumpet vine. The only thing that sortof kept it under control was regular mowing, but I'm not really into mowing, and that wouldn't be practical for a forest garden/food forest. Any suggestions (for either control or acceptance)? I'd really like it to be gone, but I'm not willing to put poison on it.

There's also a bunch of Johnson grass in that area, with it's big old rhizomes wound together with the massive trumpet vine roots, but that doesn't bother me so much. I've mostly eradicated that in my main garden by repeatedly digging it up. And I've come to accept a certain amount of bindweed (it's great for basket-weaving, and it will also shade the soil, and sortof disappears when perennials get a lot bigger. But trumpet vine? Help!?!?!

I just looked it up.. it's toxic to all animals.. so animals won't be able to root it out. I was thinking chickens or pigs but .. no. Watching the thread with interest.

I had one at my old house and the house and the humming birds loved that thing. It never really got out of hand (NW MA). I would suggest just going at the base of the vine and squatting it out of the ground. I think a little war cry adds some power if its a stubborn root. If all else fails, I go for the pick ax. Good luck!

The nectar acts as a key pollinator magnet, drawing hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies.

I have read that trumpet vine is has traditional medicinal uses for blood circulation.

Trumpet vine is tenacious so I recommend acceptance that it is a heck of a plant to try and tame.

Removing trumpet vine requires consistency in my experience. To exhaust the plant, it required removing all foliage and managing shoots. While mowing may not be idea/possible, how about something like a weed whacker? You could hypothetically do your pruning with some shears but that depends on how much space is occupied by trumpet vine.

The root systems of these plants can seem infinite. Digging up some of the plant to get rid of might be worth it in some situations but I wouldn't try and dig out the whole thing.

I have only had to deal with a small patch luckily before it got well developed. The key was making sure it couldn't create foliage to draw new energy in. In hindsight, I wonder if cutting down to the soil and then tarping off an large section could shade it out. That might be the ticket to reduce the physical labor aspect of managing it.

The best thing to do is give it somewhere to go, preferably high up.  In the wild, it climbs up into the treetops.  So if possible designate one or a few trees to let it go up, and then try to suppress it elsewhere by sheet mulching, mowing, etc.  In gardens it will become a continual issue with roots and sprouts, just like the aggressive running grasses.  You will be pulling it forever.  But if you ever try to cut it all, or remove the main trunks going up high, then the whole root system will burst out with sprouts everywhere.  This vine destroys houses if it has nowhere else to go! I've seen it get into basements, crawlspaces, even go up through walls and into attics!  

Alder's right, fighting it completely is a losing game. Giving it a tree to climb and sheet mulching around the edges is probably the most realistic approach for a food forest. I'd rather have it going vertical on one designated tree than spending the next decade pulling shoots out of everything.