admin
A gardening expert from Homebase has shared her three-step method for removing English ivy from brickwork.
Garden designer Stella Fear shared exactly how to remove the problematic plant in a video for the home improvement retailer and garden centre Homebase.
Ivy can starve and weaken trees and can even harm fences, building structures and driveways.
The video said: “Though ivy can look attractive, when it gets out of control, which it often does, it can look unkempt, damage brickwork and harm trees.”
Stella Fear shared the “best way” to limit ivy or “destroy it altogether”. To remove ivy successfully, the experts suggested gardeners will need gloves, a weed killer containing glyphosate, secateurs, a saw, a scraper, a wire brush and a fork.
1. Kill the top growth
Firstly, gardeners need to kill the top growth. Gardeners should always aim to keep ivy away from paintwork and gutters and ensure it isn’t damaging brickwork.
Ivy is very resistant to weed killers due to its glossy leaves. To kill the plant, the expert suggested spraying the plant with a weed killer that contains glyphosate to “speed up the death of the plant”.
Spraying the plant will make it easier to remove from the wall without damaging the brickwork. However, it may need repeat applications.
Once you have done this, sever the plant from its roots by cutting all the stems as close to the base as possible.
2. Remove the top growth
Once the weed killer has done its job, you can remove the plant. The longer you leave it, the easier it should be to remove.
Use the secateurs to remove each stem and dislodge the aerial roots and then pull the ivy away being careful not to pull any mortar with it.
It will be harder to remove any roots that are attached to the brickwork. To do this, scrape them off with a paint scraper at a 30° angle. This should ensure the brickwork is not damaged.
Any remaining pieces can be tackled with a wire brush.
3. Removing the roots
To remove the stump, dig it out and its major roots in one go, removing as much of the root system as possible.
Gardeners must dig as deep and wide as possible to remove everything.
If seedlings or new roots appear later on, dig them out as soon as they appear to save time in the future.
