I have a huge bed of ivy which is now highly visible after I removed a fence panel. How can I get rid if this? It is threatening to strangle other plants. I don't mind if it destroys everything else; it's an eyesore at present and climbing my trees! docusk
You must not have any deer. They ate all the ivy they could possibly reach.
Could you please ship me some of your deer? If they've eaten all of your ivy they should be hungry enough to tackle my 1/2A of ivy-choked trees. I know that nothing else I've tried including potent herbicides had any effect on it...
How much ivy can you possibly have on a 1/2 acre? Don't you own a pair of loppers? You should have gotten to it last month before it leafed out. What kind of ivy are you talking... English ivy roots are not very deep, they're pretty easy to yank out of the moist spring ground. When you have poison ivy and thorny vines then complain.
How much? Well, on my 1-1/4 lot there is at least 1/2 acre which is solid English Ivy which is growing up the trees and covering the ground without gaps. In fact it is usually several vines deep over most of its range. Oh, and I do have poison ivy (there used to be vines as big as my forearm going up some trees) and thorny vines too. But the English Ivy is not so easy to kill as you let on. I've chopped it down to ground level in patches. I've uprooted it. I've poisoned it. The problem is that it will grow back so quickly that after I clear one area and move on it starts growing back covering everything I've done in short order.
The only saving grace in the whole yard is that a large portion is covered in Periwinkle (Vinca minor) and when the Periwinkle and Ivy fight it out the Periwinkle sometimes wins. And at least the Periwinkle doesn't climb. Of course some seeds of Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei) have apparently been dropped by birds around the yard and it is capable of outcompeting the Periwinkle and Ivy and it _does_ climb trees. Without close examination it is sometimes difficult to tell Euonymus from Vinca when they are growing thickly together so getting it under control isn't easy either.
BTW my English Ivy does not "leaf out" -- it is emphatically evergreen around here and actually seems to grow during the dead of winter. I know for sure that I had cut it down from some trees last Autumn and it is at least six feet up now on a few of them.
No need to ship, radioactive deer reside in the Atomic City where they consume hot ivy. I'll herd them down Pellissippi Parkway. Have an abundance of two-headed frogs too now that the red-tailed hawks are gone. LOL
Do goats eat ivy? Here in So Cal there are people who have goats for rent to clear brush, primarily for fire protection. Maybe you could rent some goats for the ivy?
You've probably tried just mowing it but that's what I do when the English Ivy grows where I don't want it. The wintercreeper and I occassionally didi battle, probably when I felt I need humbling. :) I got one tree (silver maple) cleared and then straight line winds came and split it in half and the next year a tornado dumped the other half across the house. Now I just trim it back...
Kate - middle TN
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.