Poisoned ivy

[bestcatintheworld]

I live in a terraced house, neighbour's house and mine are covered in ivy at the back. On our wall, there was a bit on the left, and a bit on the right, nothing in the middle, if that makes sense. Came back from holiday and neighbour has clearly administered some poison to kill off the ivy. He has pulled down his dead bits, our left hand back wall is now covered in brown dead leaves.

Not helped by the fact that neighbour on the other side has asked house sitter to cut down the ivy on our adjoining wall. House sitter has completely eliminated ivy on that wall.

What is wrong with ivy? AIBU to be furious? WWYD? Please calm me down before I do something I might regret.

It gets into the brickwork/render and damages the house.

Well... It is a bit of a pain - it needs to be maintained a couple of times a year, and it seems to make the outside of the house spider-y. I'd never plant ivy against a house.

I'd be concerned that you'll have marks left over the outside of your house now though. There are less damaging climbing plants that you could replace the ivy with though.

It's really bad for the house structure. We had some growing unnoticed on our side wall; when we got to it, it had got into the mortar, forced out the bracket holding up the guttering, and started to grow inside the soffit/fascia. You'd be better off getting rid of it all.

So, none of the ivy was rooted on your property?

I'd be looking at your rights in relation to the damage left. He let his ivy grow to your side (or created a lot of work for you maintaining it, that you never asked for, really). And now he's killed it off, leaving unsightly marks.

You'd need specialised advice, though.
In any case, it might be a good idea to have a chat to your neighbours about planting things that can invade your property and their responsibility over it.

Thanks for the advice so far. Husband says it's on our land, as he remembers planting it (I don't). So it's trespassing, yes?

My husband's just gone next door to speak to the guy. He is far more reasonable than me, I am seething.

Appreciate people saying that it's bad for the house, so we're probably at fault for letting it creep over, but surely he could have talked to us about it, rather than sneaking over while we're away and applying poison on our property?

He could have poisoned it from his side, without setting foot on your property. Plenty of herbicides on the market are absorbed through the leaves.

Cointreau, I think that might be it, and I'm inclined to accept that he never came round, but my husband says neighbour claims not to have used poison. I don't understand plants that well, but really: we go on holiday, green ivy outside both houses. We come back, neighbour's side torn down, ours brown - sounds like poison, yes?

Could it have taken root on his property?
Are you sure it was on your property?

Just by cutting a major portion, it could have imbalanced the plant enough for it to die. Or it could be lack of water.

If it's not rooted on your side it would die (and go brown) if he cut he's side down surely? No water = dead plant

It's actually tricky to get off unless it's dead (those suckers are strong), but he could well have cut a few of the bigger stems at ground level then waited for them to die off before removing (that's what I'd do). If the ivy is growing in all directions it's possible that a few of the stems he cut resulted in leaves on "your" side dying off too.

Sorry, just read it was on your side!

Thanks, Lweji, this explanation helps to keep up friendly neighbourly relations!