Help! My ivy is out of control. How do I cut this? What tool should I buy or borrow to cut or trim back excessive ivy growth on the front of my garage?
Here's a picture of the front of the garage:
Thanks for any help you can give, Bill
Nasty, invasive plant outdoors, especially in warm climate. It can grow into structures and strangle mature trees. I would cut it off at the ground....killing foliage on garage will help to see where it has attached or grown into the building. The little sticky things it holds on with are hard to remove...torch? if masonry? Then: after cutting off at ground, wait until about three new leaves form on the plants and start using Roundup. I think the label says you can add detergent for waxy leaves like ivy. Using consistently on new growth, with more tender leaves, is easier than using on more mature growth. Protect the stuff you want to keep, as overspray can kill other plants. You will undoubtedly need to repeat applications of Roundup, but it will eventually do the job. Just wait for the new growth for additional applications.
Here are some of the things that could be used...
IOW, something sharp that cuts.
You should never have allowed it to get so far. Any tool can cut it down but as others suggest, I'd hit it with Round-up.
Everyone talks about how invasive it is but I have it all around the house but I never let it climb anything and nip in the bud. I can't grow it as ground cover on banks away from the house as deer eat it.
I had some ivy spring up near my foundation. At first I thought, pretty plant, maybe I should leave it. Then I found the plant had grown right between the sill plate and the foundation into the garage. This is on a well built house with no gaps anywhere.
Now I kill the stuff on sight.
Don't cut it, trim it, or anything like that. Pull it and/or give it the Roundup treatment. It will tear your house apart.
It would be next to impossible to pull it and be sure it is dead, esp. with a growth like the OP has. There are loads of "nice" houseplants that get planted outdoors and become very invasive...purple loosestrife, asparagus fern, etc. Not to mention kudzu :o) I just bought a plant this summer....Mexican primrose....for new beds in my yard. I wasn't familiar with it, so looked it up on the 'net after I got it home. One blogger said that it was invasive in good soil, but not so bad in poor dry soil. I had just the place for it, until about a week ago when I saw the stuff spreading all over my hard, rocky plant beds. I started digging it up and discovered very strong, thick roots with new plants sprouting from every root branch. Now I'm digging it up and going to burn it. I take pains to keep flowers and veggie garden healthy without poison other harmful stuff, and I don't want to be responsible for another crap plant that becomes a weed.
On the brighter side, I made concrete planters for the water lilies in my pond; monster bullfrog moved in in the spring and looks like he is staying. I think he dug up the planter night after I put peat in the new planter....turned my pond into a mudpit :o) Got it all cleaned up and thought he had gone missing, but he is still here. Good hiding places in the pond for critters, and fun to watch.
The first bullfrog to take up residence didn't last long; found him dead one morning, with guts hanging out of his mouth. Thought it must have been something foul that he ate, but that was before I knew that bullfrogs can catch and eat birds. The next bullfrog is a monster, and since he moved in I have found two dead birds in the pond....odd that they would fall from the sky into my dinky little pond :o) They looked strange, with their necks stretched, but I think the bullfrog caught them and then couldn't ingest them. He did a good job on another frog, only about 3" body length.
on the front of my garage?
Cut it all off between the ground and where it firs starts up the building. The vines should be pretty thick there are you can pull a lot of it down by starting at the bottom. Don't worry about getting it all as what you c an't get will die and fall off in a few months. You may need to scrape a b it before painting the next time you paint. Once you get it off this time then just hit it with the weed wacker every month or so where it's trying t o go up the house.
Agreed.
I was thinking kill the thing with Roundup now, and any time you see new shoots, just pull them. Works pretty well here.
I was told with vines, you should assume that the root is about the same size as the vine. A six inch vine can be pulled. Much longer and you may have to pull it more than once.
It's a shame, it is pretty attractive. Maybe okay on old garden walls away from the house.
Loppers like these:
Oops, that second link should have been:
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.