Actually, it is a very healthy, whole-body exercise, as long, of course, as you don't use any -cides.

Before you dig it out, consider if loosening the soil will make it prone to washing away should a big storm come. If it would, I'd leave the ivy/vinca in place and kill it with herbicide. The roots, even when dead, will still protect the soil and keep it from disintegrating until you can get whatever you're going to replace it with, in place. It would probably take two or three sprayings at intervals in order to kill it completely. I'd use a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-d product (such as Round-UP and Weed-B-Gone mixed together. Some plants do not die easily.) And, if you don't have a plan of what the replacement plants would be, I would leave the ivy in place until you do. Something will need to be covering the ground. What will it be? Personally, I'm a fan of ivy because it is a total work horse. But in order to make it your servant you must learn to manage it. Before removing it from just this spot, you should also assess your larger environment. Are you surrounded by ivy elsewhere and will be fighting it til you die, if your goal is to eradicate it?

There's not that much visible in these shots anyway - get a mattock and chop it out.

As long as there are no buried utilities there.

Yardvaark, I know you like the ivy, just like I like vinca. That's because I have a large yard where the former went completely feral and climbed up the house and every tree, strangling them as they went, whereas the vinca remained shallow-rooted, has sweet purple flowers, shiny leaves and lets bulbs and such grow through it. I despise euonymous even more than ivy. However, I agree, that well-kept beds of any of them can be attractive. What are you planting in their stead? Many things can look good with at their base.

@Vaporvac, not to get sidetracked on this thread about ivy, but you brought it up so I answer. If you still have that large yard and still have ivy growing up trees, go out, take a look, and notice that it grows in such a way that it can't strangle the trees, or shade out their crowns. If you maintain it does, then post a picture showing how the ivy stems are able to do this. I know it to only grow vertically, not in an encircling manner, so it's impossible for it to do the python chokehold. It only takes 2 minutes or less per tree, once per year, to sever the ivy stems and keep it from climbing trees. A person would have to have more than 50 trees for that task to take more than an hour per year. To keep it off the house, cut the same way before it scales the wall. Or kill it chemically in a strip at the base of the walls. No bulb that grows above 8" would have a hard time growing in ivy. Daffodils are right at home in it.

Your ask, "What are you planting in their stead?" If you're asking me, I don't know where you're asking about.

You're right, ivy doesn't strangle. But it can certainly shade out the crowns of smaller or weak trees.

"But it [ivy] can certainly shade out the crowns of smaller or weak trees." You'd have to explain how it's possible for this to occur (and, of course, demonstrate that it is possible with a picture.) The only way I know ivy to run over a plant is if it some small, low-to-the-ground shrub. But keeping such plants separated is just a factor of common garden maintenance. I had ivy that wanted to get into new, small azaleas. Periodically snipping it away took seconds per plant, a couple of time per season and was no big deal. But ivy only attaches to the stout wood of any tree. It doesn't climb or molest saplings and small trees, unless by some freak occurrence (that I've never seen while maintaining acres and acres of it.) Ivy has a near miraculous way of refusing to attach to wood that is not stout and solid. I went on a quick hunt for a picture of ivy's habit on trees (how it doesn't cover tree foliage) and right away came upon the website of the Woodland Trust, who claims to be "the UK's largest woodland conservation charity." (One would hope that if anyone is defending English ivy, it would be people of England!)

I can't be bothered to go out and scout out examples for photos of ivy doing just as floral decribed in the acres of ivy-infested woodlands that surround me but I can assure you it can and does! Ivy grows rampantly here and by rampantly I mean each individual tendril/stem can grow as much as 6' or more in a single season. And those long whippy stems....long before they start to develop aerial roots or holdfasts......grow into, through and up into taller woody plants, including small saplings. I've seen ivy take down 6-8' saplings of our native elderberry, which can pop up wherever a bird can sit above and poop out a seed....the weight of the ivy just overwhelms the not yet rigid structure of the elders and smothers them.

Ivy can be mananged in a smaller residential garden if one must have it. But it requires far more maintenance than any other groundcover I can think of, at least in this area. And if you skip the maintenance for any length of time or of you inherit a garden where the ivy is already established but has not been properly mantained, then all bets are off! And I would never recommend ivy as a groundcover around smaller shrubs, ever. You go away on vacation and when you come back, your shrubs will have vanished.....it grows that fast and that aggressively!

"I can't be bothered to go out and scout out examples for photos of ivy doing just as floral described ..." Unfortunately, without evidence, I can't feel compelled to believe your and Floral's claims. If it were true what you both say, then the physical proof should be available within ten seconds of entering the "ivy infested woodlands" that surround you, GG. The personal assurance of an ivy hater, such as yourself (and possibly Floral) might not be based on pure, objective fact. Ivy haters tend to not grow ivy or study the nuances of its habits. Instead, figuratively speaking they run from and throw rocks at it.

"But it requires far more maintenance than any other groundcover I can think of ..." I know you wouldn't want to think this, but is it possible that with this particular plant, you are not managing it in the best way? I've heard this claim before -- where I lived and where I had ivy and where it grew with seemingly unbridled energy -- and found it to be baseless. In fact, when I managed ivy, I credited it for being not only the most dependable groundcover that would accept almost any and all conditions, but for being the biggest landscape time and work-saver ever!. The two half-acre properties in Atlanta I owned personally were each covered in 1/4 acre of ivy. Not even mulch -- which would need annual top dressing -- could have been easier or cheaper. I guess if one was set on hating it and their perpetual goal was to get rid of it, then having ivy around would seem like the cause of an endless struggle. But for those of us who consider how we can put this durable, disease-free, evergreen plant to work solving everyday landscape problems, find that barely any other plant is as versatile and dependable.

"And if you skip the maintenance for any length of time or if you inherit a garden where the ivy is already established but has not been properly maintained, then all bets are off!" Interestingly enough, that was my initial introduction to it and ultimately, what caused me to come to love it. I bought my first property in Atlanta ... a neglected house and yard that was borderline abandoned. It was owned and previously rented out to faculty by Agnes Scott college. But their plans had changed and it had sat dormant for period of years. Ivy was literally everywhere in the neighborhood, which was primarily wooded. The yard was large oak trees, about a billion saplings, and chest-high weeds everywhere. In the house-half of the yard, ivy was front and center, In exploration of the wooded and weedy half, ivy seemed to underlie everything. I wondered if I could get rid of the weeds and keep the ivy (I needed to have something nice looking covering the ground.) It turned out that I could spray the weeds and their existence protected the ivy from a direct hit of herbicide. In about a year's time, I had what would have cost several thousand dollars, had I had to install it, of ivy. I also had ivy running amok on the house but it was not difficult to kill with herbicide and be done with it. I decided I didn't want ivy growing up the large trees and severed it all at the base of each tree, except for one which was a special project. That chore on a quarter acre of tree took probably took no more than 2 or three hours. It was much more time consuming to cut and remove the billion weedy saplings. It was a relatively short time for all the dead ivy leaves to fall off, making it much less visible. Within two or three months, all the ivy stems were falling off of the trees. All I had to do was walk around and pick it up, as a one-time thing.

I won't go deeper here into how bad IT WASN'T, to convert a complete weed infested eyesore into a handsome, groundcovered landscape, thanks to ivy, but I have its general maintenance factors pretty well discussed in another thread devoted exclusively to that subject ...[Managing Hedera Helix[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/managing-hedera-helix-english-ivy-dsvw-vd~5352716?n=16)

I know how much you like ivy and in your area it may not behave in the same manner as it does here. But there is a very good reason why it is considered one of the worst offending invasive species in the PNW.....it is the northwest's version of kudzu! I've dealt with this plant for many, many years, including in two of my own gardens (as well as with countless client gardens) and it requires nearly constant maintenance to maintain proper control, not just trimming back once or twice a season. It grows very rapidly and very aggressively. And any upward growth can encourage the change to the adult form which then produces flowers and the berries that birds spread everywhere.

I do not care to enter into a debate about it nor do I feel compelled to provide photos to prove my point. It is what it is here and you can take it or leave it. It is extremely hard to eliminate with any sort of herbicide for very well documented reasons and requires considerable effort to grub out. Aside from its aggressive invasiveness here and amazingly rampant growth habit, it also fosters an appealing habit for rodents (rats) in any semi-urban setting and is not a plant I would in good conscience ever recommend being intentionally planted anywhere for any reason.

"English ivy is an aggressive invader that threatens all vegetation levels of forested and open areas, growing along the ground as well as into the forest canopy. Vines climbing up tree trunks spread out and envelop branches and twigs, blocking sunlight from reaching the host tree’s foliage, thereby impeding photosynthesis. An infested tree will exhibit decline for several to many years before it dies. The added weight of vines also makes trees susceptible to blowing over during storms. English ivy has been confirmed as a reservoir for bacterial leaf scorch (Xylella fastidiosa), a harmful plant pathogen that affects a wide variety of native and ornamental trees such as elms, oaks and maples."

https://www.invasive.org/alien/pubs/midatlantic/hehe.htm

https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/english-ivy-invasive-weed-pacific-northwest

I'm a member of the Woodland Trust and I own a 25 acre woodland. I'm intending to bequeath it to the WT on my death. There's plenty of ivy in my wood and some of it climbs trees. Most is harmless and a vital resource for wildlife here in its natural range but on a small or weak tree it can shade the canopy. It can also increase wind resistance on deciduous trees in winter and lead to windthrow. So, even where it's native, it can cause problems.

I've tried to counter the factually incorrect statements that have been made here about ivy. but really don't want to get sidetracked on someone else's thread. As we already know, discussions about ivy take on a life of their own and don't seem to end before fur flies and eyelashes are pulled out. I think there have even been stabbings! I don't mind debating it with anyone prepared to conduct a serious debate, but that requires evidence, not just claims.

There is barely any benefit to modern life that doesn't also have a down side. Many things we use are immensely helpful, but when misused can kill us. That every small and weak thing should survive and prosper does not sound great to humans, but in fact, it's the plan that nature designed. When I see ivy being portrayed as all evil and without redeeming qualities, I know it's an unfair and biased portrayal, because there IS a good and useful side to it.

Floral, how lucky you are to have a multi-acre woodland! I am ivy-green with envy!

"When I see ivy being portrayed as all evil and without redeeming qualities, I know it's an unfair and biased portrayal, because there IS a good and useful side to it."

Perhaps. But just not here :-) There is a reason its sale is banned in Oregon and similar prohibitions are being considered for both Washington and California.

And when I said it grows rampantly here, I meant just that!! According to the Director of WA's Noxious Weed Board, ivy removed from a single tree in the Olympc National Forest weighed 2100 pounds!! Sorry, but you cannot convince me that a full ton of excess foliage and woody vines is not doing some damage.....and that is just one tree out of thousands and thousands that it covers in this heavily forested state.

Yard, I don't think you have a clue how bad the ivy situation is here. My comparison to kudzu was not made facetiousy.

Yardvark, it might not be a problem where you live, but it is in a lot of the country. It is here and it is as bad or worse than kudzu. A lot of us are dealing with imports that seemed like a good idea at the time. They have proved to be a big problem. Please don't dismiss our very real problems, just because it is killed off where you live.(where ever that is). Ivy, euonymus, privet, oregon grape holly, and Bradford pear are just a few of the imports that seemed like a good idea at the time and are killing our forests and native plants.