{"id":2372,"date":"2018-03-27T05:07:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2372"},"modified":"2018-03-27T05:07:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T13:07:11","slug":"i-hate-ivy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/i-hate-ivy\/","title":{"rendered":"I Hate Ivy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The experts agree; Napoleon never uttered that famous palindrome, \u201cAble was I ere I saw Elba\u201d.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a palindrome in French, and even in exile, Napoleon probably never admitted that a comeback wasn\u2019t waiting somewhere in the wings. \u00a0Since any claim to Napoleonic authorship has now been discredited, I will feel free to alter the palindrome and assert my own truth, \u201cAble was I ere I saw ivy.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that English ivy or Hedera helix is beautiful, with its glossy leaves, vigorous habit and ability to cloak even the ugliest structure in a cascade of green.\u00a0 Once established it needs absolutely nothing from the gardener and will survive all kinds of horticultural and ecological insults.\u00a0 As if that wasn\u2019t enough, English ivy comes in a wide array of forms, from compact, small-leafed varieties, like \u2018Anita\u2019, to variegated charmers, including the fetchingly splotched \u2018Golden Ingot\u2019.<\/p>\n

So what is the problem?<\/p>\n

Very simply put, English ivy is unstoppable.\u00a0 My garden right now is covered in the last of the snow from the last of this year\u2019s nor\u2019easters.\u00a0 I can barely see the most brazen leaves in the various ivy patches, but I know what is going on.\u00a0 Even covered by a wintery blanket, with their roots imprisoned in cement-like soil, the ivy is plotting garden domination.<\/p>\n

The ivy on my property pre-dates my ownership.\u00a0 It went in sometime after the house was built in 1882, unless, of course, it simply migrated before that from an even older property.\u00a0 Ivy is like that.\u00a0 I have seen it romping through untended cemeteries, clambering up the surviving brickwork of abandoned factories and scaling the heights of lofty evergreens.<\/p>\n

English ivy first arrived in North America with European settlers.\u00a0 While the settlers did battle with disease, starvation and bad weather, ivy blithely escaped Colonial gardens and spread by all available means.\u00a0 With few natural predators, it glided over multiple acres, climbed by aerial rootlets, produced abundant seed and rooted wherever its stems touched the ground.\u00a0 Its success made it the robber baron of cultivated plants.\u00a0 Now, over three centuries after the first cuttings rooted in America, English ivy is considered invasive in the eastern third of the United States and parts of the west coast.<\/p>\n

My ivy issues stem\u2014literally and figuratively\u2014from two circumstances.\u00a0 My focus on plants other than ivy has allowed the pernicious vine to spread over the years.\u00a0 I have also aided its proliferation by transplanting perennials that grew near the original patches.\u00a0 Despite my heroic efforts to eliminate any ivy roots from the soil around the transplants, the ivy outsmarted me.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, with the renewed vigor that all gardeners feel in spring, I am ready to tackle the ivy infestation in my garden.\u00a0 Herbicides are a non-starter for me and I try to avoid them whenever possible.\u00a0 Besides, the ivy that I don\u2019t want grows cheek by jowl with the perennials that I like.\u00a0 Blasting the ivy with herbicides would endanger those desirable plants.<\/p>\n

If I am feeling strong and want to get physical, I can simply start yanking the ivy out.\u00a0 This is a very cathartic and satisfying exercise, especially if you use it to channel lingering hostility towards any particular person, situation or event.\u00a0 If your unwanted ivy patch is small, or you can take on a larger infestation in increments, yanking may be your ticket.\u00a0 One caveat–if you choose the incremental route, make sure you don\u2019t wait too long between increments.\u00a0 Ivy is notorious for its ability to make up for lost time and lost ground.<\/p>\n

If you feel Agatha Christie-ish, you can also murder your ivy by smothering.\u00a0 Landscape fabric laid over the patch and camouflaged with a good layer of organic mulch works well for this.\u00a0 If you are thrifty and still subscribe to newspapers, substitute a thick layer of newsprint for the landscape fabric.\u00a0 In either case, watch the edges of the covered area for fugitive ivy that is yearning to break free and rampage once again.\u00a0 Yank it out when you see it.<\/p>\n

Human nature is fickle and it is entirely possible to love certain Hedera helix cultivars for their elegant appearance and hate the species form that threatens the expensive hellebores.\u00a0 If you experience that duality, keep the existential crisis at bay by selecting one of the more civilized ivy varieties from the spring array at local nurseries and garden centers.\u00a0 The small-leafed, lightly variegated \u2018Glacier\u2019 is a good example.\u00a0 Plant it in containers either indoors or outdoors.\u00a0 When it gets too leggy, trim it back.\u00a0 The urge to commit hedera-cide will never enter your mind and you can go about your spring garden chores with a clear conscience.<\/p>\n

\"English<\/a>
English ivy: Bent on world domination<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The experts agree; Napoleon never uttered that famous palindrome, \u201cAble was I ere I saw Elba\u201d.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a palindrome in French, and even in exile, Napoleon probably never admitted that a comeback wasn\u2019t waiting somewhere in the wings. \u00a0Since any claim to Napoleonic authorship has now been discredited, I will feel free to alter … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[120,163,1839,1361,1227,1840,737],"class_list":["post-2372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-climbers","tag-climbing-perennials","tag-english-ivy-invasive-plants","tag-foliage-plants","tag-ground-covers","tag-hedera-helix","tag-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2372\/revisions\/2374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}