african ivy problem: Re: over grown afican ivy

» Marge_Talt - Re: over grown afican ivy

In response to message posted by dankrska:

Hi dankrska, Welcome to Gardening in Shade!

I wasn't familiar with the common name 'African ivy', but a Google search leads me to believe it's Hedera canariensis, AKA Algerian, Canary or big leaf ivy. If I'm right, it's very similar to regular ivy, Hedera helix, only not as hardy and with a much bigger leaf.

While all ivies will spread and in some parts of the country, they have moved out of bounds, unlike Traute, I do not consider them to be ipso-facto "invasive". Properly tended, they can provide extremely good groundcover for areas where other plants are reluctant to do well. They are good at holding banks and berms and can provide a very tidy appearance year around in the right locations.

Unless it's either growing up the trees and bushes or your soil is very poor to start with, I'm surprised that it is doing any stunting. I have assorted ivy growing amongst my shrubs, as groundcover over tree roots and up trees and have not noticed any stunting of host growth in nearly 30 years.

If your soil is poor, then you will need to feed your trees and shrubs, either with a well balanced commercial fertilizer (according to label instructions) or by top dressing with compost or manure annually.

If your area is naturally very dry - little rain - and not regularly irrigated, then, that could be one of the major causes of the tree/shrub stunting, since the ivy will soak up a lot of the available moisture in the soil. Or, there could be some other reason why the trees/shrubs are not thriving; it's very hard to tell without actually seeing the site.

As for weeds in the ivy. In my experience, the best way to remove weeds from ivy is dig or pull them out. Yes, this takes a bit of time and effort, but once you've got their root systems out; they're gone.

If you like the ivy and want to keep it, tell your landscapers to quit being so lazy and do a bit of actual garden maintenance work:-) Chemicals are not the only way to remove unwanted plants! Simple manual labor does a very good job of weed removal....that's how I do it; very, very seldom do I use RoundUp and then only on the gravel driveway. All weeds and unwanted plants in my borders are removed by hand. If I can do it, so can your landscapers:-)

If they are totally averse to a bit of real work and insist on chemicals, they need to apply something that is rated for use on the plant that they want to remove and at the proper time of year. A lot of "landscapers" are not properly trained in the use of chemical herbicides, which are not all equal for all plants. For instance, Bermuda grass requires some effort to remove, since it reproduces by seed, rhizome and stolons. It often needs three treatments at the proper time of year to kill the entire plant.

Hand weeding is best done when the soil is damp. If it has not rained for some time, then the area in question should be well watered the day before the weeding is to take place...this softens the earth and makes removing weed roots much easier.

If you do not want the ivy, it can be removed. The best way is to pull it and dig out the larger roots. You will have to have something else ready to go into that area or weeds will fill it instantly. Ma Nature hates a void.

Unless all the major roots are removed, there is a good chance that some will re-sprout. If they do, just keep them cut back at ground level for a season and you'll kill the roots. Like all plants, ivy needs to have leaves to photosynthesize and make food for the plant. If you deprive it of leaves, it can survive on food reserves stored in the roots for a time, but, eventually, those will be depleted and the vine / roots will die.

This fact provides another option for removal of ivy (or any plant, for that matter). It can be cut to ground level and either black plastic or several layers of damp newspaper or magazines can be laid over the area and covered with mulch. After a year, all of the plants should be dead; the covering can be removed and the ground tilled and prepared for planting something else.

-- posted by Marge_Talt