We have a decent growth of ivy on the back wall of our house - I like it but it's now at roof height and I can't keep it in trim [no roof access, no massive ladder, no appetite to get up massive ladder even if I had one]. Anyone have experience with ivy growing wild and unchecked - will my roof be in pieces in a couple of years?
Was wondering if a tree surgeon or gardener at height could train the ivy somehow - cut it back a yard say and get it to stay there? Or do I just need to accept that it's more trouble than it's worth and kill it off 🙁
By the look of it, yes, it will start getting under your roofline pretty shortly and is already probably causing problems with your pointing etc.
I'd get it all ripped off, personally.
Kill it. Kill it with fire! After stripping it back from my mother’s house it cost a fortune to get the brickwork and mortar sorted.
Doesn’t it vary by the type of Ivy? Some are a nightmare, some much less so.
I’d dangle me chopper out the window mind.
I would definitely kill it. It's pretty but does loads of damage especially once it reaches the roof.
Saw straight across at the bottom and pour on whatever you can to kill it. I ended up using the area as a toxic waste dump for any nasty chemicals I had used - bleach, descaler, anti-freeze, whatever. Eventually it died.
Just ripping the stuff off and disposing of it is a job and a half!
You don't need chemicals. Just cut across at whatever level you want and wait a bit. Let the top die properly before you try to pull it off. Will be ugly for a while. That's unless it is sufficiently embedded in the walls for the top section to get sufficient moisture that way and keep growing (which is unlikely).
You can kill the base if you're desperate (which will require poison or many repeated sustained efforts at digging up), or just let it grow up for a few years and repeat the cutback whenever you want.
You don’t need chemicals. Just cut across at whatever level you want and wait a bit. Let the top die properly before you try to pull it off. Will be ugly for a while. That’s unless it is sufficiently embedded in the walls for the top section to get sufficient moisture that way and keep growing (which is unlikely).
It does look a bit like it's growing independently of the ground - it's coming out of a tiny pot and the upper half up top is all verdant and healthy looking, whereas it looks a bit tired towards the ground. Maybe it's just better light higher up.
If it's rooted in the wall then it definitely needs killed to death ASAP, but be careful with removing or you'll lose your mortar.
Drill holes into the bigger stems and pour in neat glyphosate.
We shared a terrace house in Edinburgh with ivy with the next door neighbour. They liked it, I - for the reasons above - didn't like it, so it removed from our side with their side happily having the mortar plucked out by the ivy roots. I didn't like them for other reasons too, so maybe hoped Karma would visit them..
I had a full week of cleaning up a mess like that, in my previous house.
Months in advance, chopped it all at ground level, stood stems of the plant in buckets of strong glyphosate. Once suitably dead, the whole lot came off in a sheet, that must've weighed a couple of tons!. Cut it all up wi chainsaw and burnt it, as it was dry.
Then the fun part. wee angle grinder and steel brush wheels to clean all the horrific looking tendrils off before we painted the house. That was the bit that took the week,
Best of luck sir.
Was wondering if a tree surgeon or gardener at height could train the ivy somehow – cut it back a yard say and get it to stay there? Or do I just need to accept that it’s more trouble than it’s worth and kill it off
They can certainly trim it, but they'll need to use scaffolding or an access tower or a cherry picker to get to it, which can be problematic and expensive and the bastard stuff will grown back at scary speeds. We just hired scaffolding and did it ourselves, but even though we cut it back quite hard, it was back where it started less than a year later.
I think maybe the way forward is to slice off the main trunks at three-quarter height and trim the rest. There are different views on the mortar thing. One take is that if your mortar is in good condition, the ivy won't damage it. If it needs repointing anyway - which is often the case - it'll tend to pull it out. The problem, of course, is that under the ivy, it's hard to say.
We're reluctant to kill it outright. It provides habitat for dozens of birds, bees and other insects and as a species, we seem committed to wiping out every other life form on the planet. Just seems wrong.
Oh, and Virginia Creeper is the less controversial, more easily controlled alternative.
It provides habitat for dozens of birds, bees and other insects and as a species, we seem committed to wiping out every other life form on the planet. Just seems wrong.
Which was one of my main reasons for removing it, couldn't open a bloody window in summer or the place was full of wee buggers!. Rest of the garden was full of apple, pear and plum trees, various big shrubs, and a couple of big Sycamores. Oh, and a mahoosive hedge all round, so plenty places for wildlife really.
Cut at ground level then leave it a year until all the leaves have gone.
You should be able to remove the stems just by pulling from the bottom and probably save pulling mortar out too. If its already behind the fascia and into the roof void I would move.
As most above have said - kill it all ASAP!
Having experienced it at a previous house where it was growing up an outbuilding wall it is the most destructive plant possible. It goes into any tiny gap and will pull roof tiles off and wrecks mortar and pointing.
If you leave it at a high level it would need trimming every year as a minimum! Get rid...
At our last house we got a knock on the door one day. the back of our garden was a blank brick wall of a 2 storey house around the corner. The knock was from the son of the elderly owner, asking if we could cut back the ivy growing up it, as it was invading her kitchen through the window.
What made it worse was that we didn't even know there was a window on that wall, and we had lived in the house for about 5 years at that point. Stuff was all over the glass and through the cooker hood vent. Also went right inside the loft - a real pain to remove, and then cart through the house (no rear access).
I would also like to say that IMO the RHS advice is pretty much bollocks. They love to say it won't do any harm to sound masonry and also won't harm a sound tree but IME it will swamp and destroy either given a suitable opportunity. It's just a "no true scotsman" fallacy to say after the event that the mortar must have been unsound!
My approach to wildlife-friendliness is to leave some chunks of ivy around the garden where it's not doing any harm but I've also cleared some areas where it was definitely a problem.
Keep it away from windows, doors, fascia boards, soffits, eaves, gutters and the roof where it will cause damage/put unsightly brown marks on paint/upvc. After that it's not such an issue; chopping back leaves a choking dust(?) in your throat
As mentioned cut a section out at the bottom, wait until it dies off and pull it off (fnarr) it’s very satisfying but dusty. There’s no need for any chemical use
I've got it growing up the side wall of the workshop, doesn't seem to be doing any harm.
Hi
I fully agree with getting rid of it - we bought a house where it had been left unchecked and it has gotten under soffits, gutters, into window mechanisms, lifted roof tiles etc. The mortar is not damaged though - maybe we were lucky with the species - but I have read it doesn’t really attack mortar?
Anyway, where I would disagree with the above is that I would rip it down while it’s still alive. Reason for this is that the roots are far more supple and come away quite easily. If you leave it to die - it sets like concrete and leaves far more of a mess on the brickwork, takes more effort to remove - and the toxic dust is far worse, (wear safety glasses - it’s horrible if you get it in an eye).
I did one half of the house dead and one half alive - the live stuff was much easier to remove and then you can chop it up and worry about killing the stump, (it is heavier alive though).
Anyway, good luck - definitely worth getting rid of however you go about it!
Another vote for killing it. I had a joyous time helping my FiL remove it from his house. Elderly neighbour had let it run wild and it was causing a lot of damage. We just severed at the base and then peeled it off as it started to die. Hateful stuff.
Worked at a house and neighbours had grown ivy up the gable side wall of a garage which had got under the flat roof felt of the garage, new roof required and neighbours also refused access for roofers to replace roof from their side.
Second house grew up to roof level, cut a 6 inch piece out of huge stem and let die, it took many months then pulling the stuff off huge dust and horrible mess on brickwork and woodwork.
Its lovely stuff for birds etc, but they can fly away and find a new home, homeowners cant .
"It provides habitat for dozens of birds, bees and other insects"
Yes - when I ripped mine off my garage walls and roof I found a fox living under it.
Felt a bit guilty but it was too late by then.