Planting Boston Ivy against a residential wall

B_Rubble

Dear DIY/Gardening Gurus,

I am determined to plant Boston Ivy against my north-west facing rear wall. I have a surrounding concrete pavement.
Can anybody guess what i am likely to find beneath my pavement, when i attack it with my angle grinder?
- I assume/hope a bed of hardcore or soil?
(The house is a four bed semi-d in maynooth, approx 8yrs old)

Can I safely remove some of the hardcore and replace with topsoil?

Should I encounter any piping? Electrical cabling?

Will the structure of the wall suffer greatly?

Will the rear wall look like Sh** during the winter?

interested in any thoughts/advice

many thanks in advance

beldin

Having had our pavement dug up lately for a sunroom , the things that were under the pavement at the back were
a) rainwater pipes (4 inch)
b) sewage pipes. (4 inch)
c) water mains coming in
d) gas mains coming in from the meter.

Electricity tends to come to the meter and then go inside the house

You probably will get down to soil but I would be very careful if swinging a pickaxe.

Endymion

Ivy rips down walls. Be warned.

Sonnenblumen

Boston Ivy isn't as vigorous/troublesome as traditional green (Hedera) Ivy. That said, ivy no matter what variety, involves constant maintenance otherwise if you allow travel/run freely up to the eaves etc you can down the line expect trouble.

Boston Ivy is reknown for its colour change before leaf fall, otherwise it's pretty ordinary in spring/summer time. There are other less troublesome climbers you can consider.

Re pit, according to regs, services such as electricity, gas etc should be 14"/350mm below surface but rarely are. You can track water from meter outside, and also gas/elec to probably external meter boxes. If in doubt hire a services locator.

A Bosch hammer would be better to break concrete, and with a bit of luck you should get about 150mm of hardcore below your 100mm concrete, but don't be dispapointed if you find you're still digging through hardcore after 500mm. All you need when you reach soil is to backfill hole with fresh topsoil and remember to fertilise pit on regular basis.

Reyman

You'll probably find rubble and sand. Take it out and put in some good top soil. It will need to be watered regularly.

I presume you're going to plant a 'Virginia Creeper' when you say Boston Ivy. Don't forget these creepers grow like wildfire. You're going to have to get up a ladder every year and cut this thing back before it gets into your gutters and under your roof

B_Rubble

Many thanks one and all.
Excellent advice. Plenty to think about.
I'll update this thread as things unfold.
cheers

Reyman

I meant to mention that you could try one of the less invasive ivies if you'd like an evergreen covering on that wall.

Look out for Hedera 'Paddy's Pride' , which is a large leaved variegated ivy and not too hard to control.
Another good self clinging climber is Hydrangea Petiolaris, producing a nice white flower in the summer. It's not evergreen though and slow growing at first but then takes off and grows rapidly.

As I said before north facing equals no rainfall so you'll need to water it well to get it going

B_Rubble

Thanks Reyman,
Still bouncing the idea of demolishing sections of my pavement around in my noggin. A bosch hammer sounds a bit messy but probably the way to go

Reyman

I used a Kango hammer on mine -- not too neat but pretty quick.

Gordon Gekko

Carnivore wrote:

Ivy rips down walls. Be warned.

No it doesn't. In rare cases ivy can damage the soft mortar of very old walls by sending its aerial roots into the mortar and loosening it. If the wall is the same age as the OP's house, no amount of ivy will rip the wall down.

Stoner

One idea is (once you know you are clear to go into the ground) rent a large drill with a 4" or 6" holesaw drill bit . Then drill a perfect circular hole for your plants.

looksee

I planted a Virginia creeper in similar circumstances (except the wall is west facing) in a large plastic bin - not a garden-centre type tub, a large plastic bin that had once held some product and had then served time as a water butt. I drilled a hole in the bottom, then put in a layer of pebbles before filling it up with a good soil/compost mixture. This was last year, its doing well, not huge yet but doing as well as another I put in the garden border. I rarely remembered to water it during the heat of the summer, but the bin seemed to be big enough to cope.

B_Rubble

Carnivore: I must agree with Gordon Gecko. I have yet to see a wall torn down... even damaged (visibly) by ivy. The old georgian houses on North Great Georges Street look pretty good to me? and many houses i've admired from a later vintage seem pretty untroubled by same.

Reyman: From what i can gather on the web etc. Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) appears to have a slightly different leaf formation to Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata). The latter being a glossier/thicker leaf similar in shape to maple. The Virginia creeper looks lighter with well defined and separated fronds holding the leaves. Both look pretty good in my opinion and both turn red in autumn. From the latin names, however, they appear to be related. Sorry for being such an anorak. Also, is a bosch hammer not the same as a kango hammer? My only experience of either is when i got very close to dislocating my arms trying to remove tile adhesive from my kitchen floor using a kango.

looksee: I can see the advantages of your bin method. No armageddon in the back garden for one. But a large bin??? Does it not look like - well a large bin in your back garden??? ..... Doesn't sound very visually pleasing. Could be wrong. Maybe an old oak barrel or something... now that might do the trick.

Anyone: I have seen simple wire support used for growing creepers. A length or thin fencing wire attached to nails which are hammered into the wall forming a criss-cross frame to grow the creeper on. Although is probably ignored by the plant as it grows and expands.