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As romantic as an ivy-covered wall looks - before you consider greening walls in the garden with ivy, you should give it some thought. The climbing plant can cause serious damage to the masonry and is difficult to remove from the garden.
Ivy climbs walls without a trellis
These conditions should be met
Before planting ivy on a wall, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Wall must be solid and undamaged
- dark colour
- Distance from neighboring properties
- Maintenance effort (cutting)
- later removal of the ivy
Ivy climbs up walls using his. These adhesive roots are very absorbent and find sufficient support even on fairly smooth surfaces. This makes it all the more difficult to remove them later. Ivy always leaves residues that you have to remove by hand.
If the wall shows signs of damage such as loose stones or leaky joints, it will be additionally damaged by ivy. The supply roots of the ivy penetrate into the leaky places and settle there. They are getting thicker and, in the worst case, can burst the masonry.
Set ivy on dark walls
Ivy will hardly climb a very light wall. A white surface emits light, but ivy is attracted to darkness. The climbing tendrils find no support and the shoots eventually fall down.
Cultivate ivy on the wall
Ivy on a wall requires little maintenance. You don't even have to cut it back if it's a freestanding wall. Then you can simply let shoots that are too tall tend and lay them over the climbing aid.
Nevertheless, it is advisable to cut the ivy at least once a year. Above all, however, you must regularly remove climbing tendrils that grow along the ground. Otherwise, after a while, the ivy will take over the whole garden.
Remove ivy from wall
- Pull tendrils from top to bottom
- Remove clinging roots with a wire brush
- check damaged walls for stability
tips
If you want to permanently remove ivy, you not only have to cut off the ivy, you also have to dig up the root. For this you need to dig deep into the ground.