Several years after that I learned that the canvas doesn't last forever. Ugh.
Last year & the year before I dug up all the violets that I could and gave them to a coworker who wanted them.
This year I have twice (once with help -- the spouse was removing weeds from somewhere else) filled the "yard waste" garbage bin. This morning that took two hours. I think I'm about half done pulling weeds and grass out of the garden-area. I am being completely indiscriminate, pulling even the violets and the Alexandria.
Found one plant I didn't recognize. It seems to be a vine that propagates by above-ground runners. I pulled out what I could. I eventually got to some leaves. Looked a bit like maple, but I know how maple trees grow and this isn't it.
Finally, pulling weeds and dredging my memory, I had a thought: Any bets on me having been rolling around in poison ivy all morning?