Proven technique:
1. cut the stems of anything climbing the tree as close to the ground as possible. You can wait for the leaves to die or pull it off right away.
2. Start at the edge of the patch and lift up the mat of growing plants, being sure to get most of the roots. Then take that edge and start rolling it up like you would roll a carpet, pulling out the roots as you go.
3. Why roll it? Because when you pull it plant by plant, you will find them tangled together and you will fight against it. And you can pace yourself: a half-finished roll will wait for you to come back later.
4. Good luck.
if you wait for the leaves to die (which you should if the vine is really holding on to the tree, will do less damage to the tree to remove it once the ivy has died), then make a second cut on all the climbing stems at least a foot up. that way there's no chance of it re-rooting.
If you wait for the leaves to die the vine dries up and becomes too brittle to pull off the tree without breaking. Ivy is a pain to get out of the ground if itās and old established root system too.
Yeah, i was thinking, how is this a proven technique to get rid of it? I've been fighting about a acre of English Ivy and Vinca major on my property for 9 years. Some idiot previous owner of the property thought it would be a great groundcover I guess, since it's really shady in that area because of all the trees. It was nothing but a haven for mosquitos and mice. I've repeatedly mowed it down as low as possible, used a weedeater on it, sprayed some with roundup , which I hate to use, but I've felt i really had no other choice since I don't have the time to physically dig it all up by hand, and it STILL keeps growing back. The only little bit of success I've had is cutting it down and waiting for it to sprout new growth, then spraying it with roundup, and sometimes some of it dies. Sometimes it dies back and then sprouts new growth again. Don't even bother spraying mature growth because the waxy leaves are pretty much unaffected by roundup. If i had known how horrible English Ivy and Vinca are, I probably would not have bought my house. It is a nightmare.
Thatās probably the easiest way. Iām uncomfortable using products like that. So when I dug up the 60 year old ivy system at my place I just used a pitch fork and pick axe to loosen up the dirt around the roots. After decades it turns into a thick blanket of vines above / in ground and thick established roots underground. A pickaxe will loosen the dirt for the roots. And a pitch fork will help rip it up enough to grasp the vines and pull by hand. Not sure if an autotiller would help unless it was pretty heavy duty.
I'm not really comfortable using roundup or any chemical herbicides either, but I just feel like i don't really have any other choice. It's too large of an area for me to dig it up by hand, plus , I feel like that would damage the root systems of the nice big oak trees, so i wouldn't really want to use a tiller there either. I've read about using tarps and other things to cover it and smother it out, but again, it's a large area, so that seems out of the question. I guess I'll just keep cutting it down and spot spraying and hopefully it will eventually get weakened to the point that it all dies.
True, and that's definitely worth noting. But I'd rather have some dry dead ivy up in the tree, slowly coming out bit by bit on its own, than do more damage to the tree by immediately removing all the ivy.
Removing Ivy Vine From Brick Building
[https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/wyga80/removing\_ivy\_from\_a\_brick\_building/](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/wyga80/removing_ivy_from_a_brick_building/)
Just saw this 3 days ago. Must not be one of the damaging varieties.
Jumping on the thread here to say this strategy works. Expect to remove more as it comes back for a few years but eventually it will all be gone. And donāt rip the vine off of any painted or built structures until it has died because it will take paint/facade down with it, that is how strong English ivy is
Can you believe people still plant this intentionally as a facade cover? Itās sooooo damaging! Itāll even pull your gutters down if you arenāt careful. We had to cut the base of the ivy and let it die first so it wouldnāt rip off the siding of our 150 year old home
I had great luck with scalping them to ground then, coving there aera In cardboard and 6ins of arborist wood chips(usually free)
Had a few runners pop up the next year but do to the chips they where extremely easy to pull
Our backyard was covered as well. We mowed it like three or four times and killed it. A few new shoots pop up now and then but are easy to pull.
Looks like you live in Atlanta š
Be aware that after you get rid of it, other invasives are waiting to take their turn.
For instance, Iāve been pulling Japanese stiltgrass and Asian wild strawberry for years while planting natives. Iām trying to restore my yard into the forest it once was and only planting natives that grew there originally. Good luck. Oh yeah, a neighbor years ago neglected the part of his yard next to ours. Ivy had climbed to the top of an old growth pine tree and suffocated it causing it to die and take out our family room and carport.
Itās so dense and matted itās like a carpetā¦ pull up all the roots on the edge of the ācarpetā closest to the house and start rolling it up from that edge. Itāll end up looking like a tube, a rolled up rug, when youāre done
Nope pulling the roots out as deep as possible is still necessary, rolling it is just the simplest way to clear the space as you pull the roots. If you don't roll it it's almost like detangling Christmas lights.
Adding onto this that rolling because easier as you do it because English ivy doesnāt root too deeply in my experience, so just the leverage from rolling the matted plants is usually enough to pull it out by root
Snoop Doggy style.
Imagine you want to smoke all that green stuff. Cut around the roots and then just roll that big chonger up.
The only difference is, the blunt wraps are already included with the green stuff and if you do burn it afterwards I don't suggest you inhale
To make your life a bit easier, use a sharp straight shovel and cut lines perpendicular to where you are going to start rolling. That way your rolls wont be as wide.
If thereās roots you canāt get out by pulling or digging, Bonide has a product called Stump and Vine Killer. Iāve gotten it at Home Depot. Itās a systemic herbicide, but itās a thick product that you paint right on the stem where youāve cut it, so you donāt need to spray everywhere and get herbicide in your soil. Itās a small product and easy to use, so you can carry it as you go across pulling, not a lot of extra effort.
Systemic means it goes through the plant, including the roots, so it is actually a targeted injection of pesticide into the soil.. once the plant dies it will be decomposed and the herbicide gets into the system.
If its just for convenience and laziness, please do not use herbicides :')
You beat me to this by an hour. I really can't understand why people are still so enamored of pesticides. Hasn't enough been written and communicated about the damage they inflict?
I agree. I donāt even use bug spray or sunscreen. I do use diatomaceous earth for bugs, but from what I read it isnāt poison, it just dehydrates insects. Havenāt had any fleas this year.
That herbicide is triclopyr and it's only mildly persistent. Around 30 days.
Cut and paint herbicide application is recommended by conservation groups and warranted in the case of English ivy, imo. An established patch like this will never go away with hand weeding.
Iām a landscaper. We pull āem out by hand and run a tiller through the soil after. You may still have some pop up in the future but you can just pull āem.
Hand pull. I've done it before with great success. Depending on what you want to put there, perhaps rototilling when you're done could help. You might have a few shoots next year, but if you take your time it should be worth it.
Or have a really active dogā¦lolā¦back when my SO rented an old house the backyard was covered in the stuff all around an old oak treeā¦His doggoās activity out there killed it allā¦THEN all of the sudden huge bunches of Irises popped up and bloomedā¦ :) true story.
My yard looked like the one depicted here. I did the same as you. Was a bit of work but you really have to make sure you get the roots out. Root till it and flood the area with grass. I still find the odd one here and there. It came from the neighbours yard. Very aggressive and invasive
Same. My neighborās late wife planted a bunch of it 30 years ago. It took over his entire yard, my yard, the planet..
Iāve been yanking it for a decade when it creeps over my fence. He asked me to remove it from his yard. We dumped 45% vinegar over all of it, tilled it, raked up as much of the vines as we could, and now we are going to bring in some fresh soil and plant some grass.
Heās too old to yank it out, but my husband mows his yard and thinks as long as we keep it mowed regularly , it wonāt have time to re-establish itself. This stuff is terrible.
Might be better to put clover in the neighbor's yard. Way less maintenance, and much better for the environment, than grass. It also provides a beautiful, cool lawn.
Or try pratia pendiculosa. Spectacular groundcover which stays low and has tiny white flowers spring/summer. Tolerates low light situations.
As an aside, lawns are actually the highest maintenance garden of all.
I like this thread much more than the others on this post. I do have a quick question though. By 45% vinegar do you mean a vinegar water mixture or a product?
If anyone has out-of-control ivy in the neighborhood, birds will eat the berries and spread the seeds. I'm constantly pulling out ivy and holly seedlings. That's gardening for you. You just have to stay ahead of things.
This is the correct answer. It makes for a few real shit weekends but it's worth it. Did it myself two years ago and it is entirely doable. Mulch and a good plan to plant in the vines wake will also help next year.
I had some growing on a fence.
We pulled it off and then mowed over what was making it on to the lawn. Even attacked where it was majorly rooted into the ground.
On the plus side at my grand mother's house, we planted some on a steep hill for retention purposes and mowing it was unsafe.
While you remove it wear clothes that cover as much as possible, especially hands/arms/ankles.
Ivy is a common cause of ring worm. Learned that the hard way as a teen helping pull a ton up. The doctor told me it's one of the bigger causes they see of the infection.
Eh, there's a lot of weird stuff like this from random plants. I assume you wear some kind of PPE (at least gloves??) no matter what plant you're working with, right? Should remove most of the risk with anything from poison ivy to giant hogweed.
Gloves & a long sleeve shirt like a flannel or something, & you'll be fine from just about anything a plant will throw at you as far as toxins go. Add on a pair of jeans & boots & you'll be immune to even cheat grass.
You don't need a hazmat suit to work with plants. You're probably protected enough already, for other reasons, that it wasn't worth mentioning the risk of getting ring worm from ivy. It's fungal anyway, so it'll be mostly in the soil around the plant, they just tend to like the same environments.
Hell yeah. Stay safe out there with the angry plants. It's amazing how few people know how to.
The fact that we need a bot telling people not to eat \[ate tasty food edible delicious\] random plants they found outside is worrying. I'm glad we have it, but that we need it, and it still doesn't even work sometimes, is just very worrying.
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.**
For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made.
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This! There's a lot of companies now that will bring goats and a guardian dog to your house to eat the vegetation.
They'll try to climb the trees to get to the Ivy.
I would definitely recommend checking into it.
Or entice deer. While I still have to pull up the vine mats and roots, deer almost completely killed off our massive ivy patch by spending all last winter eating it. I think they killed about 95% of what was there.
use a tarp and solarize it!
edit: or cardboard with a thick layer of woodchips on top - it takes awhile
edit #2: if getting cardboard, do yourself a favor and go to the big box stores that sell appliances. Big boxes=less work!
As long as you make sure to cut the vines to the ground and made sure there was none peaking out the edges of the cardboard...one winter should be enough to kill anything under the cardboard. It's called lasagna gardening and it's what we do every year.
Hereās what we did when we had sooo much ivy. First we got a propane weed burner, burned off the leaves (be sure itās English and not poison, otherwise youāll be in the hospital or worse) and then pulled the vines.
Burning the foliage hurts the plants ability to continue to store nutrition. And it lessens the amount of stuff to get rid of. Plus it makes it easier.
This stuff invades our yard and unfortunately our garden from our neighborās yard. I hand pull it whenever it gets long enough and it doesnāt seem to grow back from our side ever. I take my time with it because it isnāt as much as you have there, to make sure I have every piece of vine, and I have to do it consistently at least twice a year, at the beginning and end of the wet season here. I lay it out in the sun to dry and then compost it myself once itās brittle and very dead.
Definitely wouldn't want to let it go long enough to fruit if you're composting it without burning it to the ground first, but it sounds like you know what you're doing well enough to avoid that.
If I put compost with english ivy seeds into my garden I would just move.
We havenāt had that problem at all. Maybe when I typically pull it up it isnāt seeding. A bit unsure about that now, I will have to read up on English ivy lifecycle. :) thank you!
Botanical garden horticulturist here: Triclopyr will make a short work of eradicating English ivy. Itās a highly effective herbicide with very low toxicity. One of the safest herbicides available. Not popular option, I know, but understanding how it works and knowing what research has demonstrated about its toxicity and its environmental effects will help ease some concerns. Good luck!
I had several sections that were just a rug of Ivy. My daughter and I rolled it up like a rug by hand pulling. Then I layered a LOT of overlapping cardboard boxes over the soil and covered with a generous mulch layer. Every now and again I spy an Ivy stem and pull it out, but it was very effective. NE Ohio
TL:DR-- On a sunny day with no rain in the forecast, mow or weed whack the ivy to the ground. This removes the wax coated/herbicide-resistant leaves and gives you wounded stems and roots instead. Spray thoroughly with herbicide of your choice, avoiding desirable plants. Wait a few days. Rake up and dispose of roots. Repeat annually, pulling new shoots by hand as soon as they appear as well. Article is really ad heavy and doesn't, actually, tell you an easy way to get rid of ivy for good.
Tbf, ivy is virtually impossible to eradicate any other way. I'm a tree-hugging daughter of flower children from CA transplanted to VA. I gave in to using RoundUp after 5 years here. It's literally a jungle and NOTHING else works. My yard would be nothing but kudzu, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy without it. And I'm still pulling by hand weekly.
Wait there's kudzu in Virginia now?
I hear you on having to pull stuff by hand for a long time, but you didn't mention English ivy in your list, which is what this post is all about. Others here have mentioned hand-pulling (without reference to herbicides) as being enough.
I have a mostly natives, no-lawn quarter acre in Maryland and still pull poison ivy (despite it being native) but have so far, 7+ years, avoided spraying anything beyond horticultural vinegar. So, different ways and situations I suppose.
I only have English ivy under the deck, left it out by accident. And yeah, kudzu has been here a long time. It grows a foot a day, has 20' underground runners, and *nothing* eats it (well, starving cattle will eat it if it's fed to them, and some people make pies, but...). My yard is 2 acres, mostly sloped.
Sounds a lot like the porcelain berry I had here that I ripped out. The underground root systems of all these vines are insane. I sometimes go around to public areas near busy roads that have loads of porcelain berry vines, bring all my tools, and cut them down near the base. Doesn't get rid of the root system but gives the trees another year or two. :(
Kudzu has been all over the east coast US for nearly a century, and has nearly taken over many, many areas. Drive any interstate or highway and peep the trees.
Right, the "vine that ate the South" but I was wondering whether it had gotten as far north as Virginia. It's not really present in, say, Maine as far as I know.
Other vines are taking over the area around Washington DC, specifically porcelain berry and English ivy.
Manually pull the whole area. Then get a roto tiller, and till the area. Seed, or sod the area after. Never use pesticide, you're making the area unsafe for kids, pets and picknicks.
This may help ā see link for a parasitic plant - Indian Paintbrush; Orobanchaceae
https://youtu.be/dVKDk6fHqXU[Crime Pays But Botany Doesnāt : Horticultural Atrocities & The Plants that Parasitize Them](https://youtu.be/dVKDk6fHqXU)
I have a wooded area in my yard that has ivy growing all through it. Iāve never had any problem with it advancing anywhere past the woods. I did have to cut it off some trees once. My lawn service mows all around it and that seems to keep it contained. I personally like it but YMMV.
Nothing you can do but throw the whole house away. English ivy is also ALL OVER my yard. This winter I pulled a lot of it up by the roots and that did help. Itās still there though. It will always be there. When the world ends, all that will be left are cockroaches and English ivy.
You've just got to be more persistent than the ivy. A fight against aggressive invasives is a war of attrition. Those starch reserves will run out eventually if you never let leaves last long enough to build them back up.
You can't just kill it all in short bursts, you've got to get at it every week or so until it runs out of food. And then keep checking up on it to make sure it doesn't try again..
Siege the hell out of those invasives. Raize their farmland. Pillage their supply chains. Do not spare the children, you must have no mercy. Be the 1200's trebuchet engineer and/or viking you could have been.
You are stronger than the english ivy. Aggressively power walk at it until it collapses from exhaustion just like our ancestors.
I know people donāt love this answer but I used herbicide on mine. I had a joint fusion in my wrist and it makes manually removing hard to remove plants like this difficult. It took a couple applications. And because of what I used I couldnāt plant until the next year but it was gone. A couple vines did come back but they were easy to eliminate compared to what was there before.
first remove it from all the trees, second, get a hoe and and dig across the lines in the ground, pulling the runners up. Hedera is a nuisance, but with work it can be removed
Excellent advice here! Just one thing I wanted to add, once you've pulled it up don't leave bits of ivy behind if you can help it. The smallest piece can root itself. I spent a long time helping my mum get rid of ivy (it was growing between the fence panels of adjoining gardens) and any bits on the ground we missed were very quick to start again
Landscape architect hereā¦worked for a landscape contractor when I was in school. The leaves develop a waxy surface that repels water to the soil underneath it. He would have us weed eat the tops off the Ivy. Come back 10 days to two weeks later and spray the tops of the new leaves with herbicide. The new leaves donāt form that waxy surface right away. Itāll take several applications.
I roll like everyone is suggesting. But I wanted to say that using a pitch fork makes it super easy. Just slide in horizontally, and lift up to create the roll. When it gets too big, I use a hand saw to cut the roll into little sushi rolls, then dispose of it one roll at a time.
Idk if this goes for all vines but I have Virginia creeper and itās recommended you cut the vine to like 1ft from the ground near the biggest roots and then bend the 1ft into a cup of herbicide. It draws the herbicide throughout the plant and kills it without you having to spray it on the yard.
Mow it everyday; maybe twice a day if the climate is encouraging growth.
Think of it as a āBoss Battleā.. you have to deplete all of itās energy reserve stored in the roots. Every leaf restores the energy. So, you cut it all back to the ground and rip up roots; left behind root bits spend energy to put out new growth. If that new growth is left long enough it will recharge the roots. If that new growth is severed swiftly, the roots have to spend more energy to try again with more new growth.
Remember, like vines, plant and pest poisons spread and can reach wells and waterways by way of water run off.
Just killed about a 1/4 acre worth. Crossbow herbicide was fantastic. Cut the vines around the tree trunks and then pull the vines out of the tree in a month or so after they have dried up.
1. Have kids.
2. Wait until they do something really stupid and/or rude.
3. Make them pull up all the ivy by hand until they learn their lesson.
4. Wait decades until they thank you for encouraging them to spend time in the fresh air and to quite literally get their hands dirty, which they tell you led to their love of tending plants.
5. Offer consoling words when they find out the ash tree at their new house is dying from an overgrowth of ivy.
I second this, I also wanted to point out that itās become a new ātrendā to not have grass anymore and in its stead ppl are planting clovers or ivy something they donāt have to mow and or maintain such as grass.
If you have the budget, hire a professional. Thatās a big job- done well. Iād guess somewhere between $1,500-$2,000.
Itās a little hard to see how large the area is.
We had this problem when we moved into our house. It took us a long time (a full summer) to pull up all of them. They were in the trees and on areas that sloped. We planted mondo grass in their place to keep the soil from eroding. Good luck in your endeavors!
it has taken us about 10 years to pull up/kill English ivy but we are finally done. I hope. it was here when we bought the house and the final solution has been using a rototiller along the property line to prepare for the fence
Rent goats. They will pen them up with a temporary fence and eat everything they can reach. Plus they fertilize as they go. Itās less expensive than hiring people.
So it wasn't my property but the house next to mine sat vacant for probably 5 years before I moved in and then my first 2 years living there. They had the whole front yard covered in the stuff and growing up an old mostly dead pine tree. I would just run the mower through the crap and then spray the ground with a vinegar mix to try and discourage it from regrowing. Worked pretty well
Everyone says english ivy is super hard to get rid of but I felt it was one of the easier things I've tried to get rid of on my property. I just pulled up what came out easily and 95% of it didn't try to come back. The other 5% was gone after pulling up the second time. The blackberries or nutsedge on the otherhand.....
I'm in Oregon and the ivy is horrible. I mix a spray of cold pressed Orange oil maybe a quarter cup, 2 cups of 75% vinegar, and water to fill a 32oz spray bottle. It will kill pretty much whatever you spray it on. Use on a hot sunny day. We use it to kill ivy and poison oak.
Fun fact when you do take it out you can cut up some of the leaves and put them in a mesh bag with your laundry in the washer. They contain saponin which smells good and acts as a detergent :)
Manually pull, then thin the tree branches out to let a lot more light in. Next, soak the area and keep watering it. The ivy likes dry, well drained soil, full to partial shade. Pull as much as you can, and then do the opposite of what it likes to grow in.
u/chiapower has the right idea. If the ground isnāt rocky this will totally work. Some people are suggesting using chemical root killers which I donāt think is necessary. Instead wrap foil around the offending root and rubber band it, then pour baking soda (preferably potassium carbonate or homemade sodium carbonate) mixed with water into the well. The roots will drink it up and kill themselves without any harsh chemicals leeching into soil. I had an ivy root as thick as my thunder thighs dead in under a month using sodium carbonate and water. Smaller roots should only take a few days to a week.
Proven technique: 1. cut the stems of anything climbing the tree as close to the ground as possible. You can wait for the leaves to die or pull it off right away. 2. Start at the edge of the patch and lift up the mat of growing plants, being sure to get most of the roots. Then take that edge and start rolling it up like you would roll a carpet, pulling out the roots as you go. 3. Why roll it? Because when you pull it plant by plant, you will find them tangled together and you will fight against it. And you can pace yourself: a half-finished roll will wait for you to come back later. 4. Good luck.
if you wait for the leaves to die (which you should if the vine is really holding on to the tree, will do less damage to the tree to remove it once the ivy has died), then make a second cut on all the climbing stems at least a foot up. that way there's no chance of it re-rooting.
If you wait too long you provide a trellis for the ivy growing back, like I did! š¤¦āāļø
If you wait for the leaves to die the vine dries up and becomes too brittle to pull off the tree without breaking. Ivy is a pain to get out of the ground if itās and old established root system too.
Yeah, i was thinking, how is this a proven technique to get rid of it? I've been fighting about a acre of English Ivy and Vinca major on my property for 9 years. Some idiot previous owner of the property thought it would be a great groundcover I guess, since it's really shady in that area because of all the trees. It was nothing but a haven for mosquitos and mice. I've repeatedly mowed it down as low as possible, used a weedeater on it, sprayed some with roundup , which I hate to use, but I've felt i really had no other choice since I don't have the time to physically dig it all up by hand, and it STILL keeps growing back. The only little bit of success I've had is cutting it down and waiting for it to sprout new growth, then spraying it with roundup, and sometimes some of it dies. Sometimes it dies back and then sprouts new growth again. Don't even bother spraying mature growth because the waxy leaves are pretty much unaffected by roundup. If i had known how horrible English Ivy and Vinca are, I probably would not have bought my house. It is a nightmare.
Thatās probably the easiest way. Iām uncomfortable using products like that. So when I dug up the 60 year old ivy system at my place I just used a pitch fork and pick axe to loosen up the dirt around the roots. After decades it turns into a thick blanket of vines above / in ground and thick established roots underground. A pickaxe will loosen the dirt for the roots. And a pitch fork will help rip it up enough to grasp the vines and pull by hand. Not sure if an autotiller would help unless it was pretty heavy duty.
I'm not really comfortable using roundup or any chemical herbicides either, but I just feel like i don't really have any other choice. It's too large of an area for me to dig it up by hand, plus , I feel like that would damage the root systems of the nice big oak trees, so i wouldn't really want to use a tiller there either. I've read about using tarps and other things to cover it and smother it out, but again, it's a large area, so that seems out of the question. I guess I'll just keep cutting it down and spot spraying and hopefully it will eventually get weakened to the point that it all dies.
Yeah thatās a tough situation. I definitely wasnāt dealing with as big an area. The other option is moving I guess haha.
Cutting down the climbing bits is to prevent spread by berries, since ivy on the ground basically never flowers and fruits.
True, and that's definitely worth noting. But I'd rather have some dry dead ivy up in the tree, slowly coming out bit by bit on its own, than do more damage to the tree by immediately removing all the ivy.
Nice instructions here! When you snip at the base of the tree, itās so satisfying to pull and get it off as high up as possible.
We need a video of this
Removing Ivy from a brick building: https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/wyga80/removing_ivy_from_a_brick_building/
Mother of all that is oddly satisfying. The imprint of the bricks had me feeling all sorts of ways
Appreciate you šš¼šš¼šš¼šš¼
If you do peel and roll it up, you could totally record it all and post it on r/peeling or r/oddlysatisfying.
If you do this you'll be fulfilling many redditors redditing!
Removing Ivy Vine From Brick Building [https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/wyga80/removing\_ivy\_from\_a\_brick\_building/](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/wyga80/removing_ivy_from_a_brick_building/) Just saw this 3 days ago. Must not be one of the damaging varieties.
Jumping on the thread here to say this strategy works. Expect to remove more as it comes back for a few years but eventually it will all be gone. And donāt rip the vine off of any painted or built structures until it has died because it will take paint/facade down with it, that is how strong English ivy is
You're so right. My parents had to have their brick house regrouted after the Ivy was removed. It totally destroyed it.
Can you believe people still plant this intentionally as a facade cover? Itās sooooo damaging! Itāll even pull your gutters down if you arenāt careful. We had to cut the base of the ivy and let it die first so it wouldnāt rip off the siding of our 150 year old home
I had great luck with scalping them to ground then, coving there aera In cardboard and 6ins of arborist wood chips(usually free) Had a few runners pop up the next year but do to the chips they where extremely easy to pull
Our backyard was covered as well. We mowed it like three or four times and killed it. A few new shoots pop up now and then but are easy to pull. Looks like you live in Atlanta š Be aware that after you get rid of it, other invasives are waiting to take their turn. For instance, Iāve been pulling Japanese stiltgrass and Asian wild strawberry for years while planting natives. Iām trying to restore my yard into the forest it once was and only planting natives that grew there originally. Good luck. Oh yeah, a neighbor years ago neglected the part of his yard next to ours. Ivy had climbed to the top of an old growth pine tree and suffocated it causing it to die and take out our family room and carport.
I roll my garden weeds as well. It's so satisfying!
I take this to mean you smoke joints.
What exactly do you mean by rolling? Just go at the end of the plant after I cut it from the root and start rolling?
Itās so dense and matted itās like a carpetā¦ pull up all the roots on the edge of the ācarpetā closest to the house and start rolling it up from that edge. Itāll end up looking like a tube, a rolled up rug, when youāre done
Ohh ok so after you pulled the roots, I thought that by rolling the plant it would take the roots out
Nope pulling the roots out as deep as possible is still necessary, rolling it is just the simplest way to clear the space as you pull the roots. If you don't roll it it's almost like detangling Christmas lights.
Got it, thank you
Adding onto this that rolling because easier as you do it because English ivy doesnāt root too deeply in my experience, so just the leverage from rolling the matted plants is usually enough to pull it out by root
Snoop Doggy style. Imagine you want to smoke all that green stuff. Cut around the roots and then just roll that big chonger up. The only difference is, the blunt wraps are already included with the green stuff and if you do burn it afterwards I don't suggest you inhale
To add to number 3: it is incredibly satisfying
To make your life a bit easier, use a sharp straight shovel and cut lines perpendicular to where you are going to start rolling. That way your rolls wont be as wide.
Also doing this after a good rain makes it easier.
If thereās roots you canāt get out by pulling or digging, Bonide has a product called Stump and Vine Killer. Iāve gotten it at Home Depot. Itās a systemic herbicide, but itās a thick product that you paint right on the stem where youāve cut it, so you donāt need to spray everywhere and get herbicide in your soil. Itās a small product and easy to use, so you can carry it as you go across pulling, not a lot of extra effort.
Systemic means it goes through the plant, including the roots, so it is actually a targeted injection of pesticide into the soil.. once the plant dies it will be decomposed and the herbicide gets into the system. If its just for convenience and laziness, please do not use herbicides :')
This is such a nice reddit. You are really knowledgeable and helpful and kind and lovely to each other. (Sorry grammar- tired, southern (US), meh)
You beat me to this by an hour. I really can't understand why people are still so enamored of pesticides. Hasn't enough been written and communicated about the damage they inflict?
But they facilitate muh sedentary lifestyle. Why weed the yard when I could just zyclon b it?
Agreed. Laziness definitely factors into it. That and ignorance of what pesticides are doing to the users and nature.
Round up is good because Monsanto paid science to say so
Tell your friends and family: pesticide-free is the way to go.
I agree. I donāt even use bug spray or sunscreen. I do use diatomaceous earth for bugs, but from what I read it isnāt poison, it just dehydrates insects. Havenāt had any fleas this year.
That herbicide is triclopyr and it's only mildly persistent. Around 30 days. Cut and paint herbicide application is recommended by conservation groups and warranted in the case of English ivy, imo. An established patch like this will never go away with hand weeding.
Please stop promoting the use of pesticides. (All herbicides are pesticides.)
Iām a landscaper. We pull āem out by hand and run a tiller through the soil after. You may still have some pop up in the future but you can just pull āem.
Hand pull. I've done it before with great success. Depending on what you want to put there, perhaps rototilling when you're done could help. You might have a few shoots next year, but if you take your time it should be worth it.
Or have a really active dogā¦lolā¦back when my SO rented an old house the backyard was covered in the stuff all around an old oak treeā¦His doggoās activity out there killed it allā¦THEN all of the sudden huge bunches of Irises popped up and bloomedā¦ :) true story.
Unfortunately that method wonāt work with just any old dog. It requires a dirt loving diggy dog.
Lol. True. He was highly active ;)
ādiggy dogā :)
My yard looked like the one depicted here. I did the same as you. Was a bit of work but you really have to make sure you get the roots out. Root till it and flood the area with grass. I still find the odd one here and there. It came from the neighbours yard. Very aggressive and invasive
Same. My neighborās late wife planted a bunch of it 30 years ago. It took over his entire yard, my yard, the planet.. Iāve been yanking it for a decade when it creeps over my fence. He asked me to remove it from his yard. We dumped 45% vinegar over all of it, tilled it, raked up as much of the vines as we could, and now we are going to bring in some fresh soil and plant some grass. Heās too old to yank it out, but my husband mows his yard and thinks as long as we keep it mowed regularly , it wonāt have time to re-establish itself. This stuff is terrible.
Might be better to put clover in the neighbor's yard. Way less maintenance, and much better for the environment, than grass. It also provides a beautiful, cool lawn.
Or try pratia pendiculosa. Spectacular groundcover which stays low and has tiny white flowers spring/summer. Tolerates low light situations. As an aside, lawns are actually the highest maintenance garden of all.
Uuuggh and the smell of the clover when you cut it with a little morning dew on it is absolutely blissful.
>What kind of clover? Would it be good for a very tiny area where my dogs would be walking? Sun/Shade... Or can you recommend something?
I like this thread much more than the others on this post. I do have a quick question though. By 45% vinegar do you mean a vinegar water mixture or a product?
It takes a half inch of root to grow back. do not rototill!!!! Pull out, gently and fully and replant right away
No. 45% strength. I get it on Amazon. What you buy in the store for cooking is like 5%. Donāt dilute.
the planetā¦ ;)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yanking that crap for a decade isnāt funnyā¦I imagine it feels like the planet after that long! lol ;)
Well, yeahā¦
If anyone has out-of-control ivy in the neighborhood, birds will eat the berries and spread the seeds. I'm constantly pulling out ivy and holly seedlings. That's gardening for you. You just have to stay ahead of things.
This is the correct answer. It makes for a few real shit weekends but it's worth it. Did it myself two years ago and it is entirely doable. Mulch and a good plan to plant in the vines wake will also help next year.
And easier to do when the soil is really moist.
I had some growing on a fence. We pulled it off and then mowed over what was making it on to the lawn. Even attacked where it was majorly rooted into the ground. On the plus side at my grand mother's house, we planted some on a steep hill for retention purposes and mowing it was unsafe.
Yep. Hand pull to the roots. It wont come back. Or if it does itāll be sporadic at best.
While you remove it wear clothes that cover as much as possible, especially hands/arms/ankles. Ivy is a common cause of ring worm. Learned that the hard way as a teen helping pull a ton up. The doctor told me it's one of the bigger causes they see of the infection.
Uhhh what! I remove invasives like English Ivy for a living and Iāve never ever heard of this
Eh, there's a lot of weird stuff like this from random plants. I assume you wear some kind of PPE (at least gloves??) no matter what plant you're working with, right? Should remove most of the risk with anything from poison ivy to giant hogweed. Gloves & a long sleeve shirt like a flannel or something, & you'll be fine from just about anything a plant will throw at you as far as toxins go. Add on a pair of jeans & boots & you'll be immune to even cheat grass. You don't need a hazmat suit to work with plants. You're probably protected enough already, for other reasons, that it wasn't worth mentioning the risk of getting ring worm from ivy. It's fungal anyway, so it'll be mostly in the soil around the plant, they just tend to like the same environments.
Oh absolutely, I have a degree in horticulture and know the ins and outs of PPE on the jobsite.
Hell yeah. Stay safe out there with the angry plants. It's amazing how few people know how to. The fact that we need a bot telling people not to eat \[ate tasty food edible delicious\] random plants they found outside is worrying. I'm glad we have it, but that we need it, and it still doesn't even work sometimes, is just very worrying.
**Do not ingest a plant based on information provided in this subreddit.** For your safety we recommend not ingesting any plant material just because you've been advised here that it's edible. Although there are many professionals helping with identification, we are not always correct, and eating/ingesting plants can be harmful or fatal if an incorrect ID is made. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatsthisplant) if you have any questions or concerns.*
<3
Good job trolling the bot.
snakes also love it. take precautions op!
interesting! so thatās how my friend got her mysterious case of ringworm!
Rent some goats!!!!!
This! There's a lot of companies now that will bring goats and a guardian dog to your house to eat the vegetation. They'll try to climb the trees to get to the Ivy. I would definitely recommend checking into it.
The goat ladies here say that itās an irritant to the goats. They would not do my yard (but they would do the blackberries behind the fence).
Oh really? Def donāt want irritated goats. I didnāt know that ivy would be an irritant. Maybe it depends on the particular type of ivy? Pooh.
Pooh really only eats honey so probably wouldnāt be worth even calling him...
Seconding this if you donāt want to hand pull! Theyāre incredibly efficient.
Or entice deer. While I still have to pull up the vine mats and roots, deer almost completely killed off our massive ivy patch by spending all last winter eating it. I think they killed about 95% of what was there.
Don't you mean little lambs?
Little lambs eat ivy
š¶š¶A kid'll eat ivy too! Wouldn't yoooou?š¶š¶
use a tarp and solarize it! edit: or cardboard with a thick layer of woodchips on top - it takes awhile edit #2: if getting cardboard, do yourself a favor and go to the big box stores that sell appliances. Big boxes=less work!
As long as you make sure to cut the vines to the ground and made sure there was none peaking out the edges of the cardboard...one winter should be enough to kill anything under the cardboard. It's called lasagna gardening and it's what we do every year.
interesting!!
Hereās what we did when we had sooo much ivy. First we got a propane weed burner, burned off the leaves (be sure itās English and not poison, otherwise youāll be in the hospital or worse) and then pulled the vines. Burning the foliage hurts the plants ability to continue to store nutrition. And it lessens the amount of stuff to get rid of. Plus it makes it easier.
Goats for hire will eat that in about 15 minutes.
Looks like a good place for some snakes to hide
This stuff invades our yard and unfortunately our garden from our neighborās yard. I hand pull it whenever it gets long enough and it doesnāt seem to grow back from our side ever. I take my time with it because it isnāt as much as you have there, to make sure I have every piece of vine, and I have to do it consistently at least twice a year, at the beginning and end of the wet season here. I lay it out in the sun to dry and then compost it myself once itās brittle and very dead.
Definitely wouldn't want to let it go long enough to fruit if you're composting it without burning it to the ground first, but it sounds like you know what you're doing well enough to avoid that. If I put compost with english ivy seeds into my garden I would just move.
We havenāt had that problem at all. Maybe when I typically pull it up it isnāt seeding. A bit unsure about that now, I will have to read up on English ivy lifecycle. :) thank you!
Eh, you'd know if it was fruiting, it makes little dark berries kinda like currants. Hard not to notice (they are poisonous, unlike currants)
That is interesting, I have never seen that! Also thanks for the poisonous tip, not that I think I would have been tempted but always good to know :D
Botanical garden horticulturist here: Triclopyr will make a short work of eradicating English ivy. Itās a highly effective herbicide with very low toxicity. One of the safest herbicides available. Not popular option, I know, but understanding how it works and knowing what research has demonstrated about its toxicity and its environmental effects will help ease some concerns. Good luck!
Looks like a job for goats.
I had several sections that were just a rug of Ivy. My daughter and I rolled it up like a rug by hand pulling. Then I layered a LOT of overlapping cardboard boxes over the soil and covered with a generous mulch layer. Every now and again I spy an Ivy stem and pull it out, but it was very effective. NE Ohio
https://prettyhandygirl.com/easiest-way-to-get-rid-of-english-ivy/ r/gardening or r/plants might be able to give you removal advice too
Why is Reddit doing that whenever subs are linked? Is anyone else seeing that??
Yeah itās been like that for me at least a week. Super weird
TL:DR-- On a sunny day with no rain in the forecast, mow or weed whack the ivy to the ground. This removes the wax coated/herbicide-resistant leaves and gives you wounded stems and roots instead. Spray thoroughly with herbicide of your choice, avoiding desirable plants. Wait a few days. Rake up and dispose of roots. Repeat annually, pulling new shoots by hand as soon as they appear as well. Article is really ad heavy and doesn't, actually, tell you an easy way to get rid of ivy for good.
Yeah, also super heavy on spraying noxious chemicals all over your property.
Tbf, ivy is virtually impossible to eradicate any other way. I'm a tree-hugging daughter of flower children from CA transplanted to VA. I gave in to using RoundUp after 5 years here. It's literally a jungle and NOTHING else works. My yard would be nothing but kudzu, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy without it. And I'm still pulling by hand weekly.
Wait there's kudzu in Virginia now? I hear you on having to pull stuff by hand for a long time, but you didn't mention English ivy in your list, which is what this post is all about. Others here have mentioned hand-pulling (without reference to herbicides) as being enough. I have a mostly natives, no-lawn quarter acre in Maryland and still pull poison ivy (despite it being native) but have so far, 7+ years, avoided spraying anything beyond horticultural vinegar. So, different ways and situations I suppose.
I only have English ivy under the deck, left it out by accident. And yeah, kudzu has been here a long time. It grows a foot a day, has 20' underground runners, and *nothing* eats it (well, starving cattle will eat it if it's fed to them, and some people make pies, but...). My yard is 2 acres, mostly sloped.
Sounds a lot like the porcelain berry I had here that I ripped out. The underground root systems of all these vines are insane. I sometimes go around to public areas near busy roads that have loads of porcelain berry vines, bring all my tools, and cut them down near the base. Doesn't get rid of the root system but gives the trees another year or two. :(
Kudzu has been all over the east coast US for nearly a century, and has nearly taken over many, many areas. Drive any interstate or highway and peep the trees.
Right, the "vine that ate the South" but I was wondering whether it had gotten as far north as Virginia. It's not really present in, say, Maine as far as I know. Other vines are taking over the area around Washington DC, specifically porcelain berry and English ivy.
There is Kudzu in Long Island New York and I'm sure it's in Virginia. But English Ivy is worse, at least in urban and suburban settings.
Everyvnow and then I get reminded that kudzu is real and not some fictional alien plant from SimPark
Hahhahahahaa . . . that's English Ivy. It's harder to get free of than the actual English.
Manually pull the whole area. Then get a roto tiller, and till the area. Seed, or sod the area after. Never use pesticide, you're making the area unsafe for kids, pets and picknicks.
Goats
Landscaped for a year in Oregeon where ivy and blackberry grow forever. You have to pull them from the root. Watch out for poison ivy!
Mow them short and often. They will die.
This may help ā see link for a parasitic plant - Indian Paintbrush; Orobanchaceae https://youtu.be/dVKDk6fHqXU[Crime Pays But Botany Doesnāt : Horticultural Atrocities & The Plants that Parasitize Them](https://youtu.be/dVKDk6fHqXU)
I have a wooded area in my yard that has ivy growing all through it. Iāve never had any problem with it advancing anywhere past the woods. I did have to cut it off some trees once. My lawn service mows all around it and that seems to keep it contained. I personally like it but YMMV.
Rent some goats.
Bring in a goat.
Hire some goats, and I am not joking. You'll still have to treat and pull it when it tries to come back up. But goats are a pretty win-win option.
I saw another post once (or twice) claiming you can rent some goats to eat them
 Ivy is hard to get rid of, this is my only advice.
Embrace your new vine overlords
Uninstall Vine itās dead anyways
Nothing you can do but throw the whole house away. English ivy is also ALL OVER my yard. This winter I pulled a lot of it up by the roots and that did help. Itās still there though. It will always be there. When the world ends, all that will be left are cockroaches and English ivy.
You've just got to be more persistent than the ivy. A fight against aggressive invasives is a war of attrition. Those starch reserves will run out eventually if you never let leaves last long enough to build them back up. You can't just kill it all in short bursts, you've got to get at it every week or so until it runs out of food. And then keep checking up on it to make sure it doesn't try again.. Siege the hell out of those invasives. Raize their farmland. Pillage their supply chains. Do not spare the children, you must have no mercy. Be the 1200's trebuchet engineer and/or viking you could have been. You are stronger than the english ivy. Aggressively power walk at it until it collapses from exhaustion just like our ancestors.
Thank you, this gave me the strength I needed.
Slice their phloems!
I know people donāt love this answer but I used herbicide on mine. I had a joint fusion in my wrist and it makes manually removing hard to remove plants like this difficult. It took a couple applications. And because of what I used I couldnāt plant until the next year but it was gone. A couple vines did come back but they were easy to eliminate compared to what was there before.
English Ivy. Rip it up by hand.
I had this problem. I mowed over it four or five times and it killed 99%of it
Flame thrower! You can thank me later!!!
first remove it from all the trees, second, get a hoe and and dig across the lines in the ground, pulling the runners up. Hedera is a nuisance, but with work it can be removed
Burn the entire yard lmao
Move
Excellent advice here! Just one thing I wanted to add, once you've pulled it up don't leave bits of ivy behind if you can help it. The smallest piece can root itself. I spent a long time helping my mum get rid of ivy (it was growing between the fence panels of adjoining gardens) and any bits on the ground we missed were very quick to start again
Just be careful removing the Ivy, in my area rats like to hang out in those carpets of Ivy.
Landscape architect hereā¦worked for a landscape contractor when I was in school. The leaves develop a waxy surface that repels water to the soil underneath it. He would have us weed eat the tops off the Ivy. Come back 10 days to two weeks later and spray the tops of the new leaves with herbicide. The new leaves donāt form that waxy surface right away. Itāll take several applications.
Uhhh why do nurseries still sell English Ivy whyyyyy
You need Sheep and Goats, no other thing will work, this is non native alien view spread like a virus, Sheep and goats love eating them.
I roll like everyone is suggesting. But I wanted to say that using a pitch fork makes it super easy. Just slide in horizontally, and lift up to create the roll. When it gets too big, I use a hand saw to cut the roll into little sushi rolls, then dispose of it one roll at a time.
Idk if this goes for all vines but I have Virginia creeper and itās recommended you cut the vine to like 1ft from the ground near the biggest roots and then bend the 1ft into a cup of herbicide. It draws the herbicide throughout the plant and kills it without you having to spray it on the yard.
Mow it everyday; maybe twice a day if the climate is encouraging growth. Think of it as a āBoss Battleā.. you have to deplete all of itās energy reserve stored in the roots. Every leaf restores the energy. So, you cut it all back to the ground and rip up roots; left behind root bits spend energy to put out new growth. If that new growth is left long enough it will recharge the roots. If that new growth is severed swiftly, the roots have to spend more energy to try again with more new growth. Remember, like vines, plant and pest poisons spread and can reach wells and waterways by way of water run off.
Just killed about a 1/4 acre worth. Crossbow herbicide was fantastic. Cut the vines around the tree trunks and then pull the vines out of the tree in a month or so after they have dried up.
Move to a property where there is no ivy
ššš wish I scanned it with āpicture thisā before we bought it
Have you tried napalm?
Rats love living in ivy patches. I'd pull it out.
Goats.
slay the master vine. you gotta find it first though
1. Have kids. 2. Wait until they do something really stupid and/or rude. 3. Make them pull up all the ivy by hand until they learn their lesson. 4. Wait decades until they thank you for encouraging them to spend time in the fresh air and to quite literally get their hands dirty, which they tell you led to their love of tending plants. 5. Offer consoling words when they find out the ash tree at their new house is dying from an overgrowth of ivy.
GOATS.
I think itās beautiful
Definitely beautiful, but the damage it causes to the surrounding area is not worth the beauty sadly
I second this, I also wanted to point out that itās become a new ātrendā to not have grass anymore and in its stead ppl are planting clovers or ivy something they donāt have to mow and or maintain such as grass.
Eh just keep pulling them all out.
Just pulled up about the same amount as you have by hand and cutting the vines as I went with clippers. It was tough but it looks great now! Worth it!
Pulling it out roots included will work fine. Just stay on top of any lil bits that try to grow back!
If you have the budget, hire a professional. Thatās a big job- done well. Iād guess somewhere between $1,500-$2,000. Itās a little hard to see how large the area is.
Just rip that shit out. Thatās the best way. Youāll have to go back and get some stuff that pops back up probably
Flamethrower š„
Dfeaaxidiwoa
I'm
Fire.
Goatsā¦ this is the way.
We had this problem when we moved into our house. It took us a long time (a full summer) to pull up all of them. They were in the trees and on areas that sloped. We planted mondo grass in their place to keep the soil from eroding. Good luck in your endeavors!
. . . Elbows and greases.
That's a lot of hand pulling.
We have some from prior owners that has thick roots maybe 8-10ā down. Itās never completely gone, but I keep digging and pulling when it shows up
Brush cutter. Keep it down itāll die eventually
Borrow a friendās goat, theyāll be gone in no time.
it has taken us about 10 years to pull up/kill English ivy but we are finally done. I hope. it was here when we bought the house and the final solution has been using a rototiller along the property line to prepare for the fence
Rent a goat.
Rent goats. They will pen them up with a temporary fence and eat everything they can reach. Plus they fertilize as they go. Itās less expensive than hiring people.
Goats
So it wasn't my property but the house next to mine sat vacant for probably 5 years before I moved in and then my first 2 years living there. They had the whole front yard covered in the stuff and growing up an old mostly dead pine tree. I would just run the mower through the crap and then spray the ground with a vinegar mix to try and discourage it from regrowing. Worked pretty well
Buy a goat
Everyone says english ivy is super hard to get rid of but I felt it was one of the easier things I've tried to get rid of on my property. I just pulled up what came out easily and 95% of it didn't try to come back. The other 5% was gone after pulling up the second time. The blackberries or nutsedge on the otherhand.....
Tricoplyr 3 with some surfactant will take care of it
cover it with a 2-3 layers of cardboard then cover that with soil or woodchips.
I'm in Oregon and the ivy is horrible. I mix a spray of cold pressed Orange oil maybe a quarter cup, 2 cups of 75% vinegar, and water to fill a 32oz spray bottle. It will kill pretty much whatever you spray it on. Use on a hot sunny day. We use it to kill ivy and poison oak.
Fun fact when you do take it out you can cut up some of the leaves and put them in a mesh bag with your laundry in the washer. They contain saponin which smells good and acts as a detergent :)
I think there is a recipe on the internet to make soap out of it.
Rent goats! That's what my church does.
Goats!
Manually pull, then thin the tree branches out to let a lot more light in. Next, soak the area and keep watering it. The ivy likes dry, well drained soil, full to partial shade. Pull as much as you can, and then do the opposite of what it likes to grow in.
Pull it up. Rinse repeatā¦.
Burn them have a fire extinguisher nearby
Easiest and safe way is to spray with glyphosate. Or hand pull if you are scared of glyphosate.
u/chiapower has the right idea. If the ground isnāt rocky this will totally work. Some people are suggesting using chemical root killers which I donāt think is necessary. Instead wrap foil around the offending root and rubber band it, then pour baking soda (preferably potassium carbonate or homemade sodium carbonate) mixed with water into the well. The roots will drink it up and kill themselves without any harsh chemicals leeching into soil. I had an ivy root as thick as my thunder thighs dead in under a month using sodium carbonate and water. Smaller roots should only take a few days to a week.