Removing ivy

Hooray, I have a small garden to look after

Ivy had overgrown everywhere, climbing up the house. Someone said they'd removed all trace of it, but it's growing back. How do I remove it so it won't grow again, or at least attempt to do so?

Thanks!

From Happy has-a-garden-at-last Jo

 

Hi Jo,

If ivy is cut off at the base it will try to survive by adapting the upper suckers into roots & force its way into masonry looking for water & nutrients.

You'll need to use a brushwood killer on it to make sure.

 

I got rid of some by digging out as much of the root ball as I could. It was easier than I thought it was going to be.

Try digging soil away from the roots, aim for a hole at least 12" deep and wide around the main stem, and see what you can pull out.

 

Well, I dug, and dug, and found more ivy, and more...! The ivy was all over the flower beds, in several beds! One part was almost as thick as my wrist, I never knew ivy was that tough! It spread down, and across. I even dug until I was about half underground. Eventually the soil was so hard I couldn't dig any more so I stuck ivy killing stuff down there, filled it a little with stones and then filled it back up with soil.

Finally I managed to (more or less) remove three ivy plants, with the help of my boyfriend. My plan is to grow annuals/ quick growing food crops and dig up the soil every now and again.

I feel like a fisherman telling a tale about a huge fish.

... and now I've found another ivy plant, looks thicker than the others It looks dead, please let it be dead, I can't reach it properly.

 

How big is this small garden Jo?

 

I suppose second thoughts it's not really that small a garden, it's not titchy small. Suppose I was a bit too modest about the size It used to be one house, and now it's two, I share the garden. If you count both halves of the garden as "my garden" then it's twice the size. The ivy seemed to be mainly on my side, but now i've found it's not.

The ivy all appears to be crammed up against the side of the house; I can see ivy marks all up really high where it used to cling. It seems to have snaked from one flower bed to the next, either that or previous people have grown it all over the place. The bit I can't reach is growing in a corner with a heavy thing in the way.

I never knew ivy was this intrusive!

 

Ahh, thought it wasn't that small as its taken you since december to find the second plant

It can get very destructive, seen it lift big chunks of masonry.

 

Been there, done that!
Except mine was like a tree/bush cascading over the back wall.
Was about 3ft-4ft thick spread along the whole back wall, and was about 5ft high!

We couldn't dig up the whole root.. Part of it was between two walls so.
But we got most out, and whenever some leaves would climb out from the gap between the walls, i'd spray it with the 24h weedkiller stuff.

Worked a trick for me!
Not seen any sign of life this year. :D

 

I've been digging out ivy under my privet hedge the past week. This is no use to the OP but I don't mind ivy if it's controlled. I didn't dig out the ivy but decided to pull it out from underneath the privet in order to give the privet a better chance after severely cutting it back.

I would have spent all day doing this by hand individually, so instead got a small border fork and a 2ft length of wood (2x2). If you stick the fork in the ground where the ivy is and then using the 2x2 sloted into the handle (this won't work with a T handle, only a D) turn the fork so it winds the ivy up like spaghetti. Once it's wound tight enough the roots can be ripped out of that bit.

Might be of use to someone.