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Ivy Growth: Cut or Let Be??
This may be a dumb question, but I have some ivy (not poison ivy) growing in
my back yard, crawling up the outside brick walls and the wood of a screened-in porch. Should I pull it off or let it grow? Will it hurt the wood and brick is I let it be? Any thoughts on "managing" ivy? Thanks! -- Kevin Fairfax, VA |
#2
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Ivy Growth: Cut or Let Be??
Dude --the is the devils weed.
It will rot your wood.(remember it is just water and celose --ie wet wood). It will trash your morter. (the roots love any crack just to grow expand and make it bigger). It will allow the ground around your home to stay moist and in turn you foundation stays moist. Ie damp basement. It will climb your trees and kill them along with any shrubs. It provides a great home for rodents and hides all thier adventures up the side of your house, in basement window wells. Provides them great cover and housing. It provided a great home for ants. Shall I contiue or is that enough. I bought an 100 yr old victorian with ivy only 10 ft up but around the base of the house. I had 1/2 inch dia holes in the window wells for the mice to go though. Every basement window was rotten. The water around the house didn't drain--it just sucks and adds no value. Now how to get rid of it. Mow it with your mower except watch out for everything that has ever been lost in the ivy. (I went though 3 mowers) I found bricks, balls, metal pans, rocks,stumps. Mow it again --even lower let it dry out. use a roto tiller to wind up all the roots. Just like spagetti on a fork. when it get's too bound up on the tiller just cut it off with a pruner. Works grand, Just kill the suff and be done with it Then say "god bless the Philadelphia Flyers and Donald Brashier" |
#3
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Ivy Growth: Cut or Let Be??
"KEVIN M QUINLEY" wrote in message ... This may be a dumb question, but I have some ivy (not poison ivy) growing in my back yard, crawling up the outside brick walls and the wood of a screened-in porch. Should I pull it off or let it grow? Will it hurt the wood and brick is I let it be? Any thoughts on "managing" ivy? Thanks! -- Kevin Fairfax, VA I can't really offer a decent response here, not being a real garden person myself, but I do know that most masons and home builders don't like it. I did a Google search for Ivy growing on walls and found the following two letters, and responses at: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/quickies.htm Mary wrote: Hello Garden Helper, I came across your site today during a search to gather information on ivy. I just purchased a house that has ivy growing up on most of it. It seems very securely attached to the walls, which are plaster over concrete block (I believe). I've been advised to remove the ivy, but like the way it looks, so I am trying to determine how much damage it can/will do to the house. Any advise/wisdom you can share with me? OK...I got different responses from different sources. The masons and bricklayers seem to think its a no-no.(hmm...I guess they should know! ?) However, the University of Denmark did a study and concluded that ivy growing on a wall did no substantial damage to the surface, but in fact added a bit of insulation to the wall. (uhh, these are college folks, aren't they suppose to know?) Well, since you asked ME, and not them,,,I think ivy covered walls are very cool! If it were my house, I would inspect to see if the roots are penetrating any cracks or joints in the masonry. If the roots are just adhering themselves to the surface, I wouldn't mess with them. If the roots are growing into cracks, you can assume that water is getting in there, as well. That will create problems eventually. In lieu of losing your ivy, one option would be to build a lattice attached to the wall on which the ivy could grow. Anne wrote: We would like to plant boston ivy to cover our very long (100 ft) 2 story brick wall...is there a recommended ratio of plants per square foot area? Also, how long will it take to move along up the wall? the summer, a few seasons? Thanks in advance! If you are planting standard 4 inch ivy plants, they should be planted about a foot apart and six inches from the wall. Give each plant a minimum size of 6"x6"x9" deep hole. As soon as the plant is established, give it a shot of high nitrogen liquid fertilizer (20-10-10), and feed again in August. The time that it will take to cover the wall will, of course depend on the growing conditions. A single ivy vine can easily grow six feet in a year. Pinching the tips of the vine will slow the growth initially but produce a much bushier plant which in turn will cover the wall sooner. Since you are starting from scratch, you might want to consider building a lattice attached to the wall for the plants to grow on. I don't know if that will answer your questions or not, you might check with your local nurseries and see what 'they' say - check more than one. Hope this helps Ray |
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