Anyone who has English ivy in their yard is a jerk

[Anonymous]

we have some climbing vines, but I thought they were chokeweed? It grows really quickly. We also have ground cover that has little purple flowers. It's pretty. I don;t think this counts, right? A lot of us arent experts in gardening and just inherited these things!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we have some climbing vines, but I thought they were chokeweed? It grows really quickly. We also have ground cover that has little purple flowers. It's pretty. I don;t think this counts, right? A lot of us arent experts in gardening and just inherited these things!

That sounds like creeping charlie, not ivy. English ivy you’d recognized the leaves of if you had it. Creeping charlie is hated by people who want a monoculture lawn, but it’s edible (it’s in the mint family!) and bees love it when it blooms.
Here’s ivy:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we have some climbing vines, but I thought they were chokeweed? It grows really quickly. We also have ground cover that has little purple flowers. It's pretty. I don;t think this counts, right? A lot of us arent experts in gardening and just inherited these things!

That sounds like creeping charlie, not ivy. English ivy you’d recognized the leaves of if you had it. Creeping charlie is hated by people who want a monoculture lawn, but it’s edible (it’s in the mint family!) and bees love it when it blooms.
Here’s ivy:

Creeping Charlie is invasive and also terrible- it also harbors mosquitoes and rodents (especially when allowed to grow too tall) and has a poor root system so if it’s a large part of your lawn (which often happens because it tends to take over) then your soil is susceptible to erosion, especially when it dies back for the winter.

[Anonymous]

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like English ivy. It has an ancient, lovely history. Also anything that’s been in this country for about three hundred years is native enough for me.

Me too. I don’t get the histrionics. We have some terrible thistle that grows out of control, is very hard to eradicate, and has painful thorns. Now that is a menace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was there when I bought the house. Trying to control it-- but not my fault.

+1

+1,000 I feel like I am playing whac-a-mole with the damn things. I HATE it!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like English ivy. It has an ancient, lovely history. Also anything that’s been in this country for about three hundred years is native enough for me.

Me too. I don’t get the histrionics. We have some terrible thistle that grows out of control, is very hard to eradicate, and has painful thorns. Now that is a menace.

+1 The truth is that many plants can provide shelter for biting insects and vermin, as well as bees, butterflies and other creatures, no reason to focus on English ivy in particular, and it’s easy to stop ivy from climbing trees and houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we have some climbing vines, but I thought they were chokeweed? It grows really quickly. We also have ground cover that has little purple flowers. It's pretty. I don;t think this counts, right? A lot of us arent experts in gardening and just inherited these things!

That sounds like creeping charlie, not ivy. English ivy you’d recognized the leaves of if you had it. Creeping charlie is hated by people who want a monoculture lawn, but it’s edible (it’s in the mint family!) and bees love it when it blooms.
Here’s ivy:

Creeping Charlie is invasive and also terrible- it also harbors mosquitoes and rodents (especially when allowed to grow too tall) and has a poor root system so if it’s a large part of your lawn (which often happens because it tends to take over) then your soil is susceptible to erosion, especially when it dies back for the winter.

It’s invasive alright and I sure wouldn’t plant it (my lawn is already colonized; it’s just going to be there now) but I haven’t seen any evidence that it harbors mosquitos or rodents and creeping charlie gets mowed with people’s lawns; people don’t mow English Ivy because it’s so hard on the blades. Both are invasive, one is not nearly as bad as the other.

[Anonymous]

I'm in Los Angeles and the house we bought was redone in 1998. I still get the English Ivy sneaking out from random spots under our hedge.

A few years back, I brought home a sixpack of pansies that had a little Creeping Charlie in it. I didn't know what it was at the time. It's now all over my yard. I've given up on that; it's impossible to eradicate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s easy to hate Ivy. But it’s very strong and you have to take care of your back when yanking it out. It has a good grip on your house even when dead.
Also “creeping Jenny” is very pretty and sold at garden stores. Very invasive and lives through anything. Even when you pull it up and toss on the mulch pile it will grow.

Our neighbor planted creeping Jenny and now it's invaded my yard. I have been known to use it in containers, but I have to make sure to trim it back every month or so to prevent it from reaching the ground.

Here is a nice list of alternatives to creeping Jenny, which threatens our wetlands.

https://mgnv.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Creeping-Jenny-10.0.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we have some climbing vines, but I thought they were chokeweed? It grows really quickly. We also have ground cover that has little purple flowers. It's pretty. I don;t think this counts, right? A lot of us arent experts in gardening and just inherited these things!

That sounds like creeping charlie, not ivy. English ivy you’d recognized the leaves of if you had it. Creeping charlie is hated by people who want a monoculture lawn, but it’s edible (it’s in the mint family!) and bees love it when it blooms.
Here’s ivy:

Creeping Charlie is invasive and also terrible- it also harbors mosquitoes and rodents (especially when allowed to grow too tall) and has a poor root system so if it’s a large part of your lawn (which often happens because it tends to take over) then your soil is susceptible to erosion, especially when it dies back for the winter.

It’s invasive alright and I sure wouldn’t plant it (my lawn is already colonized; it’s just going to be there now) but I haven’t seen any evidence that it harbors mosquitos or rodents and creeping charlie gets mowed with people’s lawns; people don’t mow English Ivy because it’s so hard on the blades. Both are invasive, one is not nearly as bad as the other.

Depends. When we bought our house our "lawn" was pretty much monoculture creeping charlie, so I don't need to see "evidence", I've BTDT. It was terrible and aggravated DH's allergies in particular. We still have some but now it's mixed in with fescue, clover, and other weeds. So IME it was much easier to deal with occasional English ivy because that's easier to pull out.

Actually the invasive I probably hate the most is porclainberry because it always seems to grow along the fenceline and if you miss it when young it's hard to pull out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the look of it

It's horribly invasive and does not belong here. THere are other creeping vines that are far more beautiful, native, and less invasive.

Besides all that, which should be enough, my neighbor has some and that sh-- creeps into my yard. Seriously pisses me off.

[Anonymous]

Kills too many trees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like English ivy. It has an ancient, lovely history. Also anything that’s been in this country for about three hundred years is native enough for me.

Me too. I don’t get the histrionics. We have some terrible thistle that grows out of control, is very hard to eradicate, and has painful thorns. Now that is a menace.

+1 The truth is that many plants can provide shelter for biting insects and vermin, as well as bees, butterflies and other creatures, no reason to focus on English ivy in particular, and it’s easy to stop ivy from climbing trees and houses.

That just shows how little you know. Many insects are specialists and do NOT use just any old thing. That's why milkweed is so important for monarchs, for example. Ivy provides little benefit in that regard. Further, it's difficult to control and kills other, more beneficial plants.
Plus, it's ugly.

Anything with the location other than the US (English Ivy, Japanese Maples, etc.) generally doesn't belong here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have English ivy AND Bamboo. It's not crazy but we do have to watch the trees. One neighbor is irate about it, but it's odd because their yard it an absolute disaster.

I get finding it to be a nuisance, but your rage is a little outsized. Is a neighbor's ivy growing on your structure or something? Did it kill a tree that fell or something? You can't control everything, and if you want to, consider moving to a lot with acreage.

The neighbor who complains the most in our area is the neighbor who's property looks like a salvage yard from warped and rotting plywood, lumber, cracked pots, rusty wire, JUNK. You care about a plant when your yard is covered in old, rotting debris?