Yesterday I went outside with the intention of pulling weeds and ended up pulling up English ivy instead. Maybe you think English ivy is a weed, but I don’t. In fact I’m kind of in love with the stuff. 😉
Yes, English ivy is invasive and can get pretty out of control if you don’t keep on top of it, but, in the right setting, it’s a magnificent {and low maintenance, and cheap} ground cover. If I lived in a brick house, I’d have it growing up the walls and around the windows, I LOVE ivy that much.
But right now we just have a patch of it growing along the side yard between our property and our neighbors. The ivy is kind of in the way for what I want to do there, so yesterday, I decided I would dig it up. 
And attempt to transplant it somewhere else on the property.
Last week I thought I might plant a nice row/hedge of blueberry plants alongside our property. But then I took a tape measure out there and figured I would need to purchase about 25 blueberry bushes for it to look right. And at $15 a piece, I quickly decided paying $325 + tax to line the side yard with bushes {any kind of bushes really} would be a big waste of money on my part.
After all, this is NOT our forever house. Not even close. We basically found a good deal in a neighborhood we liked, decided that if we did some remodeling, cleaned up the yard a bit and re-painted the whole place, we’d probably be able to flip this puppy in a few years and be ahead. It’s a good house, but I am not in LOVE with it. So really, why spend a ton of money on landscaping because the reality is, you and I may love the idea of a blueberry hedge, but the next guy probably won’t care.
Just like we didn’t care for the 15 rhododendrons in various shapes and sizes that littered the hillside when we moved in. {Now only 3 are left! Soon to be ZERO. Woohoo!}
This is my end goal. This is a picture of a corner lot down the street from us. Their hillside is covered in English ivy and I love the way it looks. Neat, clean, and easy to maintain. I of course will make sure I keep a good 12″ border between the ivy and the trees though. 🙂
I’m not sure exactly how fast ivy grows, but I hope it’s quick.
Do YOU have ivy growing at your place? Do you love it? Hate it?
~Mavis
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Laura says
I live in Bellevue, WA and have lots of English Ivy. I love it too, but locally it is regarded as horribly invasive, like a weed. I had a gardener friend tell me this about ivy: the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps. Pretty accurate! I let mine thrive on benign neglect as I do have something akin to a life to live, so no fertilizer, watering, etc. and it is all looking great these 15 years later. Yay for no work gardening!
Gardenpat says
Mavis, Mavis, Mavis!!! We live in a 125+ year old Victorian house in the heart of our capital city here in the Midwest. I have loved the look of English ivy here since it stays green even through the winters. We planted small cuttings along our wooden lattice like fence that separates our side and front yards from the very open city sidewalk. We also built a wooden arch over the wooden gate to our front porch. Within less than two years, it became the 5 foot tall dense “hedge” privacy fence we wanted. The arch is completely covered too and if it is raining, you can stand under it without feelng a drop!
But do NOT train it or let it grow on your brick walls or house!!! It leaches out the mortar and can deteriorate them! While a beautiful look climbing and covering a brick wall or house, it can ruin and be a very expensive repair for it!!!!
Debbie says
Yes! This! We used to live in Victoria, BC when I was a kid, and remember my mom and dad finding out that the beautiful ivy that was growing up the side of the house & fireplace had worked it’s way through the wall by the fireplace and was growing into our family room. That was the end of the beautiful ivy growing up the side of the house. We had it growing in the garden of our current house when we bought it 7 years ago, and it looked lovely growing over the fence . Fast forward 7 years, and we had to pull out all of it last summer, along with the fence, because it has ruined the fence. No more English ivy for us… at least around any structures. Love the look of it though! 🙂
Jen Hen says
Agreed! When we bought our house it had beautiful ivy growing all up the chimney and side of the house. When we removed it so we could use the fireplace, we quickly realized the chimney was just barely standing and the wall needed replaced! The ivy had gotten in everything! Needless to say, we not have no chimney or fireplace and never will unless the fireplace fairy shows up. It would cost almost 1/5 of what we paid for the house to get a new one! Yikes! Ivy became my enemy that day. Besides, my yard is too small to do anything ornamental. I squeeze my edibles in as it is and am gradually creating a landscape with them.
Solexist says
We live in Kentucky, and had a 22 acre farm that we had to sell because the woodlands were taken over by Winter Creeper, very similar to English Ivy. It’s nasty, nasty stuff, and you better hope you like it forever, because like a vampire, once you invite it in, it will never leave! It chokes out every imaginable bit of natural flora and in my opinion is far worse than the typical enemies of honeysuckle (amur) and multiflora rose. Sorry to be negative, but it gives me involutary tics and shudders to see the stuff today 🙂
Krista says
Totally agree. I’ve been digging this crap out for 5 years so far at our current home. English Ivy is so destructive and it just won’t die.
Veni says
Mavis, Kill the ivy now when you still can! The next owner can never keep up with the English ivy. In the last photo did you notice how it started climbing trees around the bottom? There is no stopping this thug once it is established. English ivy is a notorious climber. I moved into my current home without knowing that the name of the green luscious ground cover is ivy. I pulled, sprayed, dug roots for hours and hours. I cried out of pain at nights from pulling all the ivy. This stuff is so evil, it also killed a couple of Douglas firs before we moved in and also threatened to climb on the walls. This stuff can take down buildings if unattended. I still have ivy in the slopes but I am going to cover it with black plastic and start planting. You either need to have the manpower to pull and dug all the ivy roots or use full concentration roundup or use sheet mulching(time consuming to collect sheets for a large ivy patch removal like mine all the while looking at the ugly yard). I wish I can post before and after photos of my yard
Mavis Butterfield says
You can send your pictures to me at onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {spaces removed}.
Madam Chow says
Black plastic?! Thank you!
1. Full concentration Round Up has not worked.
2. We just moved into a new home and the previous owners planted ivy under the front deck. It is climbing up the walls of the house, and choking out azaleas and rosebushes.
3. I am going to bury those stinkers in black plastic. What survives is going to get torched.
Veni says
Full concentration roundup works only in summer at high temperatures. Mix with dish soap and spray and probably cover with black plastic too. I mowed the top green with lawn mower, waited for young leaves to appear and then sprayed. That way roundup is absorbed well. Old leaves are tough and won’t absorb roundup
Mavis Butterfield says
Madam Chow I think you need to blog about your new home adventures.
Tracie H says
I agree!
Patricia says
Use vinegar full strength with or without the black plastic. That should finish the job well!
Barbara Chase says
I am not sure where people live, but in the Northwest it can be a 3 year process to eliminate ivy. People even rent out goats (very effective). Our city parks manager has arborists drop chips on the ivy. It has to be thick (4 inches or more ) to smother ivy. To prevent the spread don’t let ivy flower. Birds eat the seeds and spread the seeds in woods and empty parts of people’s gardens.
Carole Browne says
We have transplanted some Ivy in our yard that was brought from England in the 1890’s by my husband’s family. It graced the yard of thier victorian brick home here in Cincinnati and I took some shoots to transfer to my parent’s yard. When their house was demolished for urban renewal several years later,I saved some of the shoots and brought it to my yard. I do have to keep an eye on it, or it goes wild. I like the fact that it has it’s “roots” in the family.
Elena says
English Ivy will choke and destroy your trees. Our last house had a stand of trees destroyed by English Ivy. It is horribly invasive and killing our Northwest forests.
PattyB says
I was writing my post but it went away [to where some other posts go when I’m not looking] but everyone above has voiced the same opinion I would. Ivy is NO BUENO! It’s very high maintenance.
PattyB says
Oh, not one mentioned that it harbor rats! Yes, I had them in one house I lived in.
WendyinCA says
I second the rat problem. Here in Northern California, rats LOVE to live in ivy. Shudder!! We got rid of it, though I personally LOVE the way it looks. 🙁
Mavis says
Nooo. I love ivy but all this talk of rats and mice and I’m going to shudder every time I look at it.
Karen Lawson says
And spiders! Great big, hairy, throw a saddle on ’em spiders hide in ivy!
If you want a creeper that doesn’t choke the life out of trees and bushes, try Virginia Creeper, it has pads that hold but doesnt enter the surface of what it’s growing on. It’s very hardy and beautiful dark red leaves in the fall!
Casey M says
Virginia creeper is also extremely invasive, i think more so than english ivy. Most vining plants need regular maintenance. Before planting anything you should always do your research. I have a natural berm in my front yard that i am filling in with english ivy near my driveway. I would suggest if you want to plant it, it should be in a controllable area where you can easily prune and maintain it. Personally i would not suggest planting it next to a house, or where it can invade a neighbor or a woodland area. Another good vine for a shady area is Vinca Minor ‘variegata’. It does not climb as does ivy and virginia creeper. It has a trailing habit with nice varigated foliage. It also has blue/purple flowers in spring.
Debbie says
English ivy, plus side green all year beautiful.
negative grows every where, impossible to get rid of although trying is a great stress reliever.
It must be trimmed to contain it so will need regular manicuring.
Trace says
Mavis! English Ivy is very toxic to Horses, Cats and Dogs….
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/english-ivy
Mary P says
I like English Ivy quite well, but as a houseplant. Outdoors it harbors spiders — thing Aragog in Harry Potter — and the suckers damage bricks, pavers, and any other construction material they latch onto. (Pulled English ivy off a 5-story building one summer!)
Jumbe says
The ivy is killing the forest where I live (just north of you) because the young trees can’t come up through it and the big ones get covered and look dark and depressing. My favorite replacements so far have been sweet woodruff which is beautiful in spring and stays green and nice at least until Feb before renewing in spring, easy to pull where you don’t want it and spreads at a fair rate without climbing. It is okay with dry shade and will walk right up to the base of trees and bushes without bugging them. and the native alpine strawberry which spreads like mad does a fair job holding down weeds and provides seriously tasty (but tiny) strawberries. Alternately bark dust with trillium coming up through it is about as pretty as it gets (but more weeding)
Wynne says
I think English ivy’s beautiful, too. But around here (Potomac River) it’s really good mosquito habitat, so I’ve been pulling it out.
Barbara Chase says
Please, please don’t transplant your ivy. It may look neat and pretty but it has so many faults I would choose an alternative.
Faults:
1. It harbors rats
2. If it flowers, birds eat the seeds and drop them into native areas where the ivy can kill off the native vegetation
3. It’s pretty boring and not being a native it does little for our environment
4. It easily moves onto your neighbor’s property where it may not be wanted so it gives your neighbor a problem.
5. Allowed to grow up trees it can choke and kill the tree
Some alternatives :
1. salal (gaultheria shallon) It is slow to establish, but has flowers and berries and cuts beautifully for flower bouquet greens.
2. vinca major and minor which do well in the shade and have pretty periwinkle blue or white flowers
3. Low growing native plants like mahonia, Oregon grape and our native sword fern cover the ground and look good year round.
We live in an area in which so many plants thrive and are quite low maintenance, there is no need to encourage a thug plant like ivy.
Rebecca says
After spending over 4 years trying to remove it from next to our house before we moved and keep it from crawling up under the siding, I will never buy a house with english ivy ever again. It’s impossible to get rid of and gets all over the place. It’s so, so invasive!
Ellen in Clackamas says
Oh Mavis, let me chime in asking you to reconsider the ivy. It is such an invasive plant as stated by others. Here in Portland they even have a volunteer group called the “No Ivy League” and go out into the nearby parks and forests to chop it down and out so it does not destroy the trees. Some folks think because it spreads so much that is good for erosion control but it is not really because the roots, although they are horrible to try and dig up, don’t go deep enough into the soil to bind it together.
Mavis says
The No Ivy League? Oh my goodness I have to check them out. That’s awesome!
Diane says
If there’s one plant I could obliterate from the face of the earth with just a wish, it’d be English ivy. English ivy gone rampant is threatening to destroy some of Portland’s most beautiful urban forested areas, and volunteers can only keep it at bay, never hope to totally get rid of it. Horrible stuff. I’m constantly fighting to keep back the E. ivy that’s taken over the lot in back of our house.
I’m with Jumbe – sweet woodruff, alpine strawberries, or vancouveria (“inside-out flower”) are all good choices for ground covers that are not too difficult to keep in control or pull out if necessary, and which don’t smother trees.
Mellie says
I HATE ENGLISH IVY! It is beautiful but it is so invasive. Our neighbors planted it years ago and it grew through our fence and completely ruined it. The vine grew so thick after years that it forced the fence boards apart and split them. The fence had to be replaced. Then it showed up in our driveway and I could never get rid of it. It took over the back yard and choked out 3 of my trees. It’s not like I just let the stuff run wild either. Every year I pulled it up all summer long. Bags full of it. It just never goes away. BLAH!!!!!
Heidi P says
Oh my, after reading most of these posts I’m thankful we don’t have english ivy at our house. We did at our last house and loved the look of it. We got two yellow labs as pups that rolled in it constantly and eventually killed most of it.
Idea: if any of these posts scare you away from english ivy you might try ferns if you like them. We had a gardener at our last house bring in large boulders and ferns for the shady areas. It was pretty. He got a permit from the state (Oregon) to harvest them out of the forest and transplant them to our yard.
Mavis Butterfield says
I hate ferns. 🙂 The ivy doesn’t scare me actually because I know I will maintain it and when it comes time to sell our house, it will look really nice. BUt I totally understand how having to deal with someone else’s mess {that did not maintain it} would be a nightmare.
Diane says
BTW, forgot to mention that E. ivy is classified as a “noxious weed” in both Oregon and Washington, and sales of it by nurseries are now banned. It’s unsuitable for wildlife habitat, too, except for the aforementioned rodents.
Bonnie Nord says
I had an exterminator come over to discuss mice in my yard. English ivy is the number one plant mice love to nest in. I was told to get rid of all of it as it would give me a mice infestation.
Mavis says
MICE!! Ugh. I didn’t know that!
HollyG says
If you end up keeping the ivy, it’s really important to keep it low to the ground. If it reaches a height of just few feet it produces small greenish flowers followed by black berries. The berries can be eaten and spread by birds. Trimming won’t help the potential rodent problems that other folks brought up, be might help keep it from spreading off your property.
You probably already know that it’s also important to burn or dispose of ivy trimmings carefully. If they escape from the bin, they easily root, spreading the ivy to wild areas. English ivy covers large areas of Forest Park in Portland, OR, where the city has been working to remove it since 1992. It’s also a problem in Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. where more than 20,000 square meters of ivy have been removed. They think it will take another 50 years to rid of the ivy. (Sorry – Biology teachers facts – we talked about invasive species in class)
Alternatives to ivy might be Kinnikinnick, Crinkle leaf Creeper, Climbing hydrangea and wild strawberries.
Heidi says
Hi Mavis,
I’m not a fan of Ivy, but I think that enough people have expressed an opinion on that! I would encourage you to look for blueberry plants on craigslist. Another option is evergreen huckleberry. You might be able to dig that out for free, especially where they are cutting down a forest to build houses or a shopping mall.
Jenny says
We had a small patch when we bought the house. The dog decided we didn’t need it. She left everything else alone and pulled that plant out.
Jill says
We have tons of it and are always fighting it back. It’s sooooo nasty.
Jill says
I just saw the mice comment. Add spiders to that, too.
Sara says
One thing to think about with resale is that the new owners may not be as diligent as you about controlling it. Additionally, you do such great gardening and if a new buyer is attracted to the other parts of the garden, this will surely chase them off. I would never buy a piece of property that had significant English ivy and I would remove what little bits were there as quick as I could.
Carol says
Having spent six and one half hours already this month on my hands and knees cutting salal in my back yard, with more to go, I would hesitate to recommend it, either. Yes, it is a native plant, the birds and rodents do like the berries, and the foliage is nice in floral arrangements. But it spreads by underground runners and what started as one plant now covers about 400 square feet. Sweet Woodruff has been much better behaved for me but it does look a little tacky by mid-winter.
Barbara Chase says
There is no perfect ground cover plant. And it differs in different parts of the country.
Another thought is to simply cover the ground. In the Pacific Northwest where trees and bushes grow rapidly we have many arborists who trim trees and turn the branches into wood chips. They will often deliver these free to gardeners. Master gardeners have covered large areas with either newspapers or cardboard. Then cover with 3-4 inches of chips. Voila, you will have a weed free area. We did this at a community garden and the area stayed weed free (or almost) for 2-3 years. Sometimes people put a thin layer of dark bark dust over the chips if they don’t like the lighter color of wood chips. It’s a very environmentally friendly way to keep down weeds.
Maueen says
Agree with all the anti-ivy sentiment.
An odd story. My husband remembers his mother sending him and his siblings outside in the summer with a jar of mayonnaise to clean all the ivy leaves and make them shiny. Can you imagine a group of rowdy youngsters and a jar of mayo to shine up ivy leaves?? My mother-in-law has no recollection of this, but the kids say yes. Personally, I think a hose would have done the trick, but after the greasy, stinky mayo got spread around? What was she thinking? Those kids must have really been driving her crazy!
Mavis Butterfield says
I agree, they must have been driving her crazy!!
emily says
For the love of all things native kill it while you still can!!!!! I spend at least 2 hours a day pulling this sh** off trees and out of the ground on a steep hillside surrounding our house. It has killed several trees and blanketed the ground so nothing else had a chance to grow. Never ever ever plant this especially if you intend to move! Come on over and see what its done lol maybe you would learn to hate it as well!!:)
P.S. – I use to like the look of it to but now I’m aware of the consequences. Once it gets mature the leaves change shape to a heart shape and it will produce berries for the birds to share win all the neighbors yards!
Rosa says
I’ve bought a house with English Ivy and now I’m desperate to get rid of it. I hadn’t had problems, but just the thought of rats, mice, etc etc ugh. I”m curious, once you’ve pulled it out, how do you dispose of it? Besides burn it with fire, of course.
Mavis Butterfield says
We have a yard waste/landfill nearby.
Diane says
Rosa, here in Portland we have a large bin for yard trash which our garbage collector picks up weekly. I put ivy and any invasive plants I pull into that – I won’t leave it ANYWHERE near my yard where it might take root again – and we can’t burn yard trash in the city.
Ivy is the cockroach of the plant world. Awful stuff.
Mavis says
“The cockroach of the plant world.” I just seriously laughed out loud! Ha!
Patricia says
I make English Ivy work for me. I pull it up by the roots and then transplant it into a large pot, urn, or even in an unused outdoor chimenea. Beautiful & very low maintenance. That way it stays under control, is beautiful, but doesn’t destroy anything else. I love Ivy, but don’t want it destroying my home.
Charles says
I think its beautiful! It has been growing on our trees for years and it has never killed them nor has it ruined our house…. We have other vines growing through it as s well and they have never died either…. I am planning on transplanting them in many other places in the yard!