R2F,

Some folks are stabbers, some are poisoners. I, like you, am a smotherer.

Cardboard + mulch is very effective for most of the weeds in my garden. The more delicate types of ivy will definitely take a last gasp and go under. A monster of an English ivy plant might survive to fight another day, but keeping it covered and pulling off any escaping tendrils should eventually choke it out.

Rain (a killin' machine but ever so organic!)

I've found ivy very resistant to roundup. I've had good success at small situations like this by pulling up all the runners and stems/stumps. Their ability to regrow from roots is very limited, unlike the blackberry. Smothering sounds like a fine idea, but will take time... I would guess at least one entire growing season. Keep an eye out for seedlings after that.

English ivy is quite inclined to regrow from roots left in the ground, just as much - if not more so - than blackberries. Because of the waxy leaf surface, it is somewhat resistant to most herbicides, although if you cut the vine back and treat exposed stems, it can be effective. I've never found smothering to be very productive either - it inevitably finds its way up and through black plastic, layers of cardboard/mulch or whatever materials one employs for that purpose. Grubbing it out by hand (or machine, if a large enough area) is really the most efficient and thorough solution.

Well, my experience is that when I pull up a long vine growing along the ground with roots all along the vine, when I yank that up in one big long pull, the roots left behind do not sprout. I always make sure to dig out the main stem with a shovel. Nothing regrows, but I'm not talking about monster-sized plants either. The same treatment does not stop a blackberry.

Thanks for the advice. I'll do the pull and smother method. It's escaped and taken hold, but doesn't have a long-time system in place.

Rain2Fall

If you do want to use Roundup on ivy, the thing to do is to mow it first, then spray the new growth immediately, before it develops the waxy coat.

If it's a relatively new infestation that hasn't gotten itself firmly embedded yet, yanking it out should work well. It's the stuff that's been in for years that is so hard to dig out.

I've had success in ground ivy control by using a pressure sprayer with a lawn weed killer concentrate (active ingredient 24-D) and adding 2 tablespoons of dishwashing detergent to 2 gal. of water and weed killer in the sprayer. The detergent acts as a wetting agent making the weed killer solution much more effective. Spray the infested area and be paitent it sometimes takes up to two weeks to see the results.

I hate using poisons, deadly chemicals, etc., but in one area, I really needed the ivy dead NOW. It was on a rockery/retaining wall and yanking on the old ivy was making some of the rocks shift in worrisome ways (part of the reason I wanted the ivy out was that it seemed to be loosening the 50-year old rockery and weakening it).

There were a lot of other plants in the area that I wanted to preserve.

I got some Ortho "woody vine killer" (I don't remember the active ingredient) and mixed it according to the label.

It was a very old patch of ivy -- some of the thicker stems were as thick as my thumb. I cut back the ivy with a lopper, then used an old paintbrush and painted the cut ends of the stems with the weed killer.

Several months later, I went back and plucked off the few new leaves, and again, painted the weed killer on the stems that I just denuded.

My theory was that the scars would suck in the poison and very quickly distribute it through the plant. It seems to have worked.

A few months later there were only a small handful of new shoots. So, one major effort and two or three follow-up treatments did the job. Four years later there is NO ivy there.

In most other areas of the yard, I just yank up the ivy and go back every six months or so and pull up any new shoots. It takes a couple years to make it permanently dead, but it's chemical-free, good exercise, and it does eventually eradicate the weed.

On a related note, I would be very interested in working on a campaign to have ivy declared a Class A noxious weed/invasive, etc. in Washington (it is currently Class C). This would make it illegal to sell, plant, and leave unchecked -- to require property owners to work toward eliminating the ivy. Also to have it removed from public places. I just cringe when driving on I-90 across Mercer Island and see the ivy just pouring over the retaining walls. Yes, I'm sure it helps reduce the freeway noise for the people living on the other side of the wall, but it's a nasty weed. (Remember when our highways were lined with mile after mile of scotch broom?)

I've heard that Oregon did this. Does anyone know how to get started on such a listing?

Here is a link that might be useful: Washington State Noxious Weed List

I just bought a house with a 1.3 acre lot that is full of ivy. Like pianojuggler I will use a combination of pulling, cutting, and spraying herbicides to get rid of it or at least control it. Not only is there English ivy, but the small leafed decorative ivy that doesnÂt do the damage that the English ivy does. I have been busy pulling and cutting it off of the trees as well. The previous owner used English ivy on some steep slopes but then they didnÂt maintain it. Now the ivy is full of native plants like red elderberry, salmon and thimble berries, crab apple trees. Those I can cut down and spray the stumps. IÂll have to fight all these weeds since the neighborhood is a wooded neighborhood and there is ivy, English laurel, cotoneaster, sweet cherry trees, English holly, and other exotic weeds throughout it as well as native weeds that the birds bring in. No scotch broom or DavidÂs butterfly bushes though. My wife wouldnÂt let me cut down the bigger English laurel or English holly, sheÂs a tree lover, but the smaller ones are toast. along with the sweet cherries. Of course the birds wouldnÂt be happy either. They love the fruit.

So my advice to you is do a combination of these things to get rid of it, and keep at it, because ivy is tough and the birds will keep bringing in new starts all the time. Good luck.