If you are thinking about planting ivy as a ground cover, for facade greening or as a hedge, you should think carefully about it beforehand. Ivy is not only poisonous, but also tends to spread rapidly throughout the garden. Destroying it later is not easy and requires a lot of effort.
How to successfully destroy ivy?
To effectively destroy ivy, all above- and underground shoots must be completely removed and the roots, which can reach up to 60 cm deep, must be dug up. Chemical agents are not permanently effective and are ecologically questionable.
How ivy spreads in the garden
Ivy spreads in several ways in the garden:
- climbing vines
- Roots
- Berries
Young plants form climbing tendrils that not only cover the ground, but also climb fences, house walls and trees. Offshoots arise from the underground roots.
Fruits only grow on the old form of the ivy. If ivy seeds itself, you will find new plants everywhere in the garden. Therefore, cut off the berries in spring to prevent self-sowing. This also makes sense because the fruits are highly poisonous and can be dangerous for children and pets.
When ivy becomes a weed
If ivy is not cut back regularly, the tendrils will over time take over the entire garden. Some gardeners therefore also consider the climbing plant to be a weed. That's why the most important measure to combat ivy is cutting.
Once ivy has really established itself in the garden, it is very difficult to destroy it. Most of the time you can only get rid of the plague with a lot of manual work.
To eliminate ivy, you must completely remove all shoots. In addition, digging out the underground roots is urgent. This is time-consuming because the root depth can be up to 60 centimeters or more. Only if you get even the smallest root parts out of the ground will you be able to completely eliminate ivy.
Can ivy be eradicated using certain means?
Chemical agents such as glyphosate Roundup or other killers are often recommended to kill ivy.
These products are not only harmful to the soil and groundwater, they also do not permanently eradicate the ivy.
Almost always only the above-ground parts of the ivy are killed by the products. The poison rarely reaches the roots, so the ivy sprouts again after a while.
Do not put ivy in the compost
If you have cut the ivy back completely and dug up the roots completely, remove the cuttings from the garden immediately. As soon as the substrate is moist enough, the plant will sprout again. That's why ivy doesn't belong in the compost if you really want to get rid of the plant.
Tip
Even if you grow ivy in a pot on the balcony or terrace, it can spread. Tendrils hanging down to the ground will eventually form roots. They get into the ground through the drainage holes in the container and continue to grow there.