It’s not the first time I’ve seen complaints about ivy on here, but apart from a difficulty removing it I’m not sure what the problem is. Maybe that’s enough for most of you?
Veddw House with ivy.
Many many years ago I saw a neighbour painting his house walls. Admittedly his was a big house with much wall but it made me aware that that was a job I didn’t fancy and there were no funds to pay anyone else to do it. Our house already looked rather manky. So I invested in a book on ivy instead,
Ivies by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall
bought two or three ivies and set those to cover up the house and garage.
The house and garage then got covered in time, though all signs of the interesting varieties vanished as our bog standard version took over. At least I assume that’s what happened. They can’t have magically changed to different sorts. But they did the job and I have always assumed that they keep the house warmer and dryer: I love watching a downpour running and dripping down the ivy. If you fancy doing the same, do bear in mind that it leaves its clinging bits behind if you subsequently try to take it off the wall.
You probably, given the comments I have come across about ivy, think I’m bonkers. Well, I am, but not so much about ivy. Here’s what the RHS have to say: Ivy keeps buildings cooler and less damp, research shows.
I would rather they had said “Research shows that ivy keeps buildings cooler and less damp”, but that’s just me being fussy. The research pleases me. I love the picture of the little houses they made for the experiment:
Sorry they are shouting at you….
But – confession: we don’t have ivy on the south side of the house, where it would give most benefit. Partly because we would have difficulty seeing out of the conservatory, and partly because we like our black walls.
Not an ideal place to cover with ivy.
You do have to take care of the ivy, like a hedge. It needs cutting at least once a year to keep it from climbing indoors to say hello.
And one of our house walls is a bit high for it to sensibly be cut, so we employed a cunning trick, also by courtesy of the RHS – anti graffiti paint. This stops it adhering to the wall, making cutting it easier. (Hint, someone! It’s time!)
The anti graffiti paint is the black line, and yes! It needs cutting!
And at the same time, it has to be cut back close against the wall too, to keep it from bushing out. This change to a shrub, which ivy miraculously performs if permitted, is what gives it the fatal weight and size to ultimately pull walls down.
As for ivy in the garden, Charles hates it emerging from under hedges into his paths, so pulls it out of the hedges periodically. Otherwise, like ground elder and other rather dedicated wild plants (ha – there we are pleasing the we love weeds wild garden people!) it creeps around and gets planted into. From where it sometimes emerges rather cheekily.
That’s a cutout of a buzzard when it’s not being sat on.
I have to imagine that everything grows more energetically here on the Welsh border, so that things other people hate are kept in check by everything else which people no doubt hate: all the plants in the garden. You’d expect a lot of ivy in our wood, but there’s not so much:
That’s moss on the trees.
There’s a bit on the rocks in the Coppice. What are your woodlands like?
I’m sorry if we sent it over to you at great cost to you all. But don’t curse it entirely – some of us love it. Especially those ubiquitous pollinator things, at the time of year when other pollen is a bit scarcer here.
Pollinator!
We cut the ivy on the garage and where it has bushed out in the Coppice after it has finished flowering. Bees, wasps, flies, hoverflies – all those love it. It gets very noisy. Do you really all hate it??
Love the appearance of your ivy covered house. Here in western Pennsylvania “English Ivy” has escaped cultivation and invaded our woodlands displacing native plants.
We had an ivy covered fence that formed an attractive boundary on the east side of our property. Two years ago our local deer herd devoured the ivy during winter when other food was scarce. The deer pushed the old fence over while trying to reach the ivy growing at the top of the wall. It was both sad and comical to watch.
We miss having “English Ivy” in our garden.
O deer!
Ivy… The first year it sleeps. The second year it creeps. The third year it leaps. I love it but it is strangling my bushes and killing them. I keep it pulled off trees but have decided it is time for Ivy Murder. i’ve filled 20 or 25 40 gallon barrels with my pullings in the past few months. Then I wait and pull up any that comes up again. And then I water the soil, put down news paper, water and put mulch on top and water. It is called lasagna gardening. It is working but there is so much more to pull up. My 75 year old body is complaining that I need help. I guess it is time to call in the cavalry.
Interesting – of course ivy has been here (UK) time out of mind. maybe that has tamed it a little?
When we bought our brick house there was ivy along the northside. When my parents would visit dad would pull down any that started up the wall. He said it would harm the brick and mortar and harbor critters.. yes Daddy. He was a civil engineer and a country boy, he ought to know, right?
I planted some in a new bed, kept it contained, liked it , until it started burning out in the winter and looked awful. Raking leaves from it was also awful. It was yanked.
Anybody have Virginia Creeper? Can grow thirty feet in a year, turns a gorgeous red in fall. I’m constantly pulling out little springs, think the birds poop out the seeds.
Anne’s not quite right about us not having ivy on the south side of the house. It clothes the long wall of the barn and covers half of the south facing end wall in a very pleasing diagonal. Ivy on walls is much favoured for birds nests, too. It’s lovely to see the wrens and robins flitting in and out.
Yes, I don’t like it in my paths as it will cover them without my weeding. It’s a pest in the yew hedges as it grows up through them, hidden, and then pops out at the top, spoiling the neatly cut line. Ok it only does that a little bit but I fear it will become more of a problem.
A National Collection in the UK is at Erdigg in north Wales – growing on brick walls.
There’s a totally amazing creeper there that may outshine all the rest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Ih5VcyO7Y
Those mossy boulders in the wood seem a place for fairies. I’ve been tempted to get ivy going up a fence, but my husband would never go for vegetation on the brick, so I will just enjoy looking at yours, which seems perfect.
Thank you. I do have an ivy fence too. Again, it needs treating like a hedge and trimming, but otherwise it works.
Well, as everything in life-it depends. I love the look of ivy Here in the Pacific Northwest Willamette Valley we are removing it from our wooded area and letting native vegetation take over. When we lived on the coast it was not so much a problem. So as it should be-to each their own. Happy Gardening
Thanks. I imagine it must behave differently in different parts. The UK is so small comparatively.
So here in Western New York state ivies were not recommended to us as young gardeners. So…we planted Virginia Creeper…a native. That ‘s good, right? Well it grew up the back of our house over the roof, through crevices, through tiny screen openings. We cut it down to the ground at one point but that made it stronger! I used to take a garbage can into one bedroom and pull it through the window to prune it. The birds loved it, made nests in it, ate the fruit. Finally we needed to have the house resided….so my dear husband tried digging it out. Every little remaining piece sprouted. RoundUp did kill it but it took two more years. Yikes! Ivies sound so refined…..
We have a lot of that too! Swarming all over from a neighbours garden. But it has yet to overpower us: famous last words???!!!
I have to conclude that some things just love America and grow like mad just for you lot!
Oh, virginia creeper. I laughed hysterically at the garden center the other day when I saw it for sale in a pot. I could supply the whole of New England from my 2 plus acres. it creeps into the garden beds, through the lilacs, the hydrangeas, the daylilies and the viburnums and up the oaks. It creeps through the wildflower meadow, across the brick steps and up into the wooden clapboards of the house. I do encourage it to crawl across a metal trellis I have outside the dining room window,, but elsewhere I find myself pulling ropes of it, some well over ten feet long, with no hope of getting at the roots.
Thanks for this reminder that native plants are as likely to be prone to “invasive” behavior as non-native plants. Plant behavior has nothing to do with nativity. Any observation we might make about a non-native plant will likely apply equally to a native plant species.
Here in California where the urge to replicate historical landscapes is strong, pioneer native species that have naturally succeeded from grassland, to shrubs, to forest are often eradicated because of the ideological commitment to the distant past. If it was grassland 250 years ago, it must be grassland now. “Invading” native coyote brush is as likely to be killed with herbicide as its non-native counterpart, non-native broom.
Ideology has a lot to answer for.
In my area ivy is unfortunately every rat’s favorite habitat. The idea of covering and cooling the west (hot) side of the house with foliage is a wonderful thought on this very hot day, but…rats.
It’s always something.
Rats are reputed to get everywhere and in my experience LOVE compost heaps!
Finally a way to describe my garden style, We Love Weeds Wild Garden People, my aunt has always called me a messy gardener. I like this better, thank you for sharing!
Hi to a WLWWGP!
I have an ivy covered oak tree…not fancy ivy, just the thug. When it blooms in late August the honeybees arrive en masse and the tree vibrates with a palpable hum. The fragrance from the flowers is heavy and full and little white petals fall softly below. The tree looks like a teddy bear in winter. Editing is always important.
See, everyone? Told you – it’s a great plant!
Love the look and the cooling would be most welcome, but it’s classified as an invasive in Oregon which we are to root out if found and NEVER plant. Too bad…
I’d miss it if I lived there.
Rats! They live in it: it’s a vertical habitat for them
Maybe your are especially acrobatic!
“We Love Weeds Wild Garden People” is a wonderful and poetic way to describe your garden style. It captures the essence of embracing the beauty of nature’s spontaneity and the charm of a wild, untamed garden. It’s a celebration of the diverse plant life that thrives naturally and harmoniously, creating a unique and enchanting landscape.
Can you write please about Leaf Miners
Thank you for your kind thoughts. But I’m afraid I had to look leaf miners up and have nothing useful to say about them. O, useless.