We moved to a new house 6 weeks ago. We have ivy covering a back fence, it's coming from our neighbours who are quite happy for us to kill it. What is the best way to do this? We have been cutting in down on our side, you would not believe how much is there and how hard it is to get rid of - big branches sticking to the fence, it's a wonder its still holding up! Any advice would be appreciated.
amasser,
Apr 17, 11:47am
Tell the neighbours that it is rotting the fence and they will be liable to replace it. Otherwise, your inconvenience doesn't bother them.
aprilguy,
Apr 17, 11:49am
It will be far easier to kill from the neighbour's side where it starts and is thickest; this is how I killed mine: chop off some thick bits if necessary to give you a flat surface then drill 12mm holes in the trunk, fill with poison and putty over to keep it in and the rain out. That will do it but of course you can also spray poison all over and dip ends in little containers of poison. I just used warehouse weedkiller.
cinderellagowns,
Apr 17, 1:09pm
To physically remove the actual ivy from the fence (even if it has been killed it will still hold on like buggery) - I use a spade to sort of scrape up the surface of the fence. If you get the right angle you can use momentum and the sharp blade of the spade to separate the ivy from the fence without gouging the wood. Assuming of course that fence is wood.
mrfxit,
Apr 17, 4:10pm
There is only 1 real solution to the likes of Ivy. Dedicated Brush/ Gorse killer sprays.
Ivy is whats know as a "woody Weed" & is very persistent AND resistant to any sprays not classed as "Woody weed" killers.
It will laugh in your face with any other lesser grade sprays
mrfxit,
Apr 17, 4:13pm
If you have good access & the time & energy AND the fussiness to chop it all out & make a proper clean up of the rubbish (Very best is to burn the trimmings) then it works great for the next growing season & you can spot spray the new shoots
maclad,
Apr 17, 4:21pm
This is the way but it will take more than one spray, we had masses and masses of ivy 10 years ago and we still get the odd bit regrowing. Persistence is the way.
aaron235,
Apr 17, 6:06pm
mrfixit & maclad,,have it
pleco,
Apr 18, 5:20am
We had it on a block fence and along with our neighbour's we dug it out (both sides) and scraped it off the fence. Our neighbour actually used a digger on his side but unfortunately we could not. We also had wisteria coming from his side which we thought had gone but it has sprung up again! It is a huge job so good luck.
sla11,
Apr 18, 9:43am
Got rid of lots of Ivy when I shifted in some 26 years ago by removing it all, treating with spray but can't remember what. To this day I still find small pieces starting to grow about the area - pull it out. Maclad absolutely right - persistence is the way! Good Luck.
catdog68,
Apr 18, 6:36pm
Thanks for the advice! My husband is convinced we can remove most of it ourselves and do some spraying. The trouble is the wooden fence has been built with alternate big and small slats with gaps between some of the slats which has allowed the ivy to grow on both sides. There are some quite large branches intertwined between the slats on both sides, so we will need to remove some of the slats to completely remove these branches. It's obviously been growing for some years, goodness knows why anyone would allow it to grow. We have already filled 5 big bags of leaves, and branches and dug out quite a few roots which seem to be growing on both sides, so I probably shouldn't have blamed the neighbours!
maclad,
Apr 18, 6:57pm
With a decent saw or good pair of loppers you should be able to remove most of the intertwining stems without removing palings and if you cannot they will fall out eventually. Removing palings sounds like an awful lot of work and effort.
jenny188,
Apr 20, 10:25pm
try a poison like woody weed killer or similar. As it sounds like a joint boundry fence the neighbor is no more liable than you are. Most counties now consider Ivy as a noxious weed and don't object to it being poisond out
rainrain1,
Apr 25, 4:49pm
Yea, Woody Wood Killer kills it. cut as close to the ground as possible and paint it on the cuts undiluted using a little paint brush
macandrosie,
Nov 17, 2:19pm
We had a 20 year old ivy which grew over a fence & completely ruined the fence. I got sick of it so hubby took to it with the chainsaw,plus digging it out, a laboriously slow job, then I sprayed any remaining branch roots. Have pretty much eliminated it.
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