I have Ivy growing along the side wall of my garage - I planted it when the house was new and was desperate for anything green.
I now want to reduce its density but find on cutting it back I am left with just a backfill of old dead leaves and tangled branches.
Should I really go for it and cut it down and let it regrow, resolving not to let it get as bad? Or should I thin it right back to the wall and thin out some of the tangle of branches?
Take ot back to the wall and thin it out
When you cut it back, if you do much more that cut what's sticking out it's going to look a mess until it regrows. It will regrow no matter how hard you cut it back. So you choose. Basically you can either try to keep on top of it with frequent trimming, let it go out of control or cut it back hard & wait for it to regreen.
NT
Funnily enough we've just completed a major anti-ivy* operation. We have a mixed hedge that's 50 years old, mostly deciduous but with some leylandii. We noticed that the trees were not very well and there was a mass of ivy on them. Three out of fourteen trees have died. We thought they had all died actually, but after stripping the ivy off and watering the area for days eleven have come to life. It took days and days to get the ivy off. We filled a 6 x 4 trailer three times.
*Hil had an Aunty Ivy but she died. The whole lot of them are dead; the geordie husband, the arsey daughter, the f****ng horrible poodle Chiko.Bill
Nuke it.
Cut it off at the roots, and paint the end of the stumps with glyphosate. And again every time it regrows.
Put something less aggressive up your wall. You'll never get the ivy marks off.
Andy
You might find that painting the stumps with SBK might be a bit more successul. It's a scrub and brushcutter designed for such tasks.
And that's for sure
Peter
About 20years ago we cut through the ivy growth on several trees. It killed it all right but I now see it is back as bad as ever.
It grows up along the front of the garage and winds its way inside. I savage it regularly but its an on going battle
Yes. Ivy just laughs at glyphosate. Its waxy coat is so good that most ivy (and holly) seedlings will survive nuking rough ground with it.
Hydrangea peteolaris (sp?) is a more appealing climbing plant than ivy. Variegated ivy is less vigorous and therefore less troublesome.
There is a parasitic flower that you can introduce to normal ivy if you want to slow it down but first you have to find some with viable seed.
This is one instance where ecoplugs are worthwhile, failing them being available a 1/2 inch hole 1" deep with a 50% dilution of glyphosate in water and a cork will kill the aerial and subterranean bits.
AJH
Try rootout. Sold as a compost accellerator on ebay. Mix and spray putting a litle washing up liquid in. It will kill most of the top growth. Put rotout on the cut surfasce of the stems and this will kill the roots. If you do not kill the top growth, experience says that the ivy will get enough moisture from any porous surfsce it is clinging to e.g a brick wall to continue to survive. I had this expeience with ivy on a brick wall. Cut the stems but the top growth was not kiled until the wall was soaked with rootout. A tip - a dutch hoe is good at removing dead ivy clinging top the wall.
Malcolm
It looks nice but I hate the stuff, grew it once and when I decided it would be too much effort to keep on top of it decided to kill it. I didnt realise that the ivy was sending out shoots through my (floor) air vents and when pulling them out some were 20 feet long. Glad I killed the thing when I did.
Our ivy struggles - largely because it grows up a near-vertical rocky bank and has to fight against bramble, foxglove, nettle, grass, thistle, and goodness knows what else. We have to take sides and help cut back the bramble, but much of the rest seems to achieve some sort of equilibrium.
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