I find a sawzall the tool for this. Someone on another forum recommended a smaller toothed blade like a metal blade to cut the fibrous leaves. I just removed a large one this year. It was about 8' wide. Leaf by leaf till I had access to the trunk which I cut with a long blade on the sawzall. Then I took a short blade and cut around the plant in the dirt with a short blade and then pried it out of the ground. I removed as many of the stolons as possible. I am still removing some plants. I only want ONE plant there. Well the thread has lasted longer than wisconsitom.... COME BACK Wisconsitom. I miss you.

You might try iron out. It removes most rust stains. https://summitbrands.com/product-category/iron-out/?utm_attribute=DMPaidSearchGoogle&utm_term=iron%20out&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj-G_-qew4gIVTcDICh1Q9gtTEAAYASAAEgJUZ_D_BwE You can buy it at Lowes

As long as the yard grades downward, away from the house, there is no reason to be catching water near the foundation. (Doing that is akin to placing a drain high up on the roof. It would serve no purpose at all.) Yet pebbles/rocks/gravel invite water to penetrate into the soil, should there be any water there. I would get rid of all the rocks. They might have been used as landscape mulch. Some people are under the impression that it is a way to prevent weeds, but as you see, it's not. Getting rid of the rocks would allow you to develop hardscape and foundation planting in the normal, regular way.

You appear to have a mounting system known as a tap-in hinge. The hole that is drilled is a little undersized for the ribs on the metal inserts, so that when the two posts are pounded in, they stick in the holes tightly like a ring shank nail. When you want to remove the hinged part, you are supposed to be able to simply unscrew the two screws, and the posts are supposed to stay in the hole for remounting purposes. I don't think the green plastic part is the problem. If the screws didn't back out when turning them counter-clockwise, they might have been over driven when first installed and are jammed onto the metal inserts, or the inserts are turning in the hole. If that is the case, then there is not an easy way to demount the hinge. You might be only able to get it off the way you did, by brute force; but, unfortunately, that sometimes damages the hole and it may not be possible to get new posts to securely mount in the hole because of that. As an experiment, I suggest you try unscrewing the screws for other hinge mounts...including ones you don't want to replace as a test to see if any of the other ones uninstall normally. Here is a video that shows how this works for a similar hinge mounting system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ekKXVvN6Gg One other thing: with the hinge plate you are holding in your hand, you should be able to put a pliers or ViseGrip on the insert part and then unscrew each screw, preferably with a cordless driver. Whether you can remount the plate securely by reusing the inserts or getting new ones is the question.