Ivy taking over the garden

John Mason

Does anyone know of a way to kill off ivy without killing everything around it?

i have an Ivy growing up a tree in the front but i cant find the root. This bloody thing has now almost completely covered the tree and most the plants on the garden.

crosstownk

I'd a similar problem a couple of years ago with ivy climbing all over the back of a house I moved into. In the end I located the main stem and severed it. The stem was 5 or 6 metres away from the house along the garden wall. Best thing to do is look as hard as you can for the stem and cut it and then simply let the ivy die off.

GreeBo

What he said.
Sever the main stem, though you might try poisoning it (dont sever completely and add some killer) it *might* help it die and fall down. Otherwise you will have the fun job of trying to pull all the dead branches from your house (and then scraping and repainting)

John Mason

thanks thankfully its not on the house

i really cant found the main root, i have pulled as much as possible off the tree, creating a break so the top part will die off

i think the previous people may have planted a second plant in the rockery, but i cant actually find the rockery anymore, and it has now completely cover over a large container and has started to grow up the rose plants - it is some mutant version of ivy, every month or so i go out and cut loads of it back but that seems to make it grow even more.

it looks like just elbow grease to remove it

Reyman

SBK (mixed with oil) kills ivy. Though you can't plant anything for 3-6 months afterwards.

GreeBo

irishbird wrote: »

thanks thankfully its not on the house

i really cant found the main root, i have pulled as much as possible off the tree, creating a break so the top part will die off

i think the previous people may have planted a second plant in the rockery, but i cant actually find the rockery anymore, and it has now completely cover over a large container and has started to grow up the rose plants - it is some mutant version of ivy, every month or so i go out and cut loads of it back but that seems to make it grow even more.

it looks like just elbow grease to remove it

sorry, dunno where I got house from

In that case (as you say) "just" create a ring of no ivy around the trunk of the tree.
Make it about a foot high. It will take a good few months for the ivy on the tree to die off and even then it will still be clinging on there and looking manky.
Trimming it back will just promote more growth so leave it until you can find the root. That said you may need to trim some sections to trace it back to the root.

I would find the biggest, brownest, woodiest piece you can and start tracing that downwards. Eventually you will get to the root then kill that sucker.

crosstownk

irishbird wrote: »

every month or so i go out and cut loads of it back but that seems to make it grow even more.

it looks like just elbow grease to remove it

Yes and yes. It's a right pain to remove and cutting it just causes it to grow more which doesn't help. But as GreeBo said, it can help in tracing it back.

Just be thankful it's not brambles, I've been waging a war with these things for more than 2 years and believe me the make ivy look easy :eek: