To let ivy overgrow my house?

[Zola1223]

I live in a small, mid-terrace red brick house. It's blank. I think it's ugly and uninspiring and lacking in character. It's screaming out for some greenery but the front garden is a driveway and DP refuses to give it up.

I've tried a hanging basket but the house is north facing so the pot didn't do very well. There's a hedge separating us from the neighbour on the left but it's not really enough.

I just went on a walk and saw that a neighbour has let the entire of the front of their house be consumed by ivy and some other stuff.

Ivy is the bane of my gardening life. My neighbours have masses of it and I spend more hours cutting back what grows over the ivy-destroyed fence than I do actually tending to my own plants and beds. I hate the stuff! Don’t do it unless you hate your neighbours and want to destroy your bricks

Don't do it! Ivy is the very devil to get rid of

We used to have it up the side of our house and for a while thought it looked nice. However, then we realised that not only was it getting in to the guttering and potentially damaging the brick work but also it was harbouring loads of ants which got in to the house and also a wasps nest.

It took DH and I a huge amount of time and effort to get it down but the bastard stuff keeps coming back. Turn your back on it for a few months and it establishes a toe hold again.

We once had a house that had some ivy on it, it actually managed to push it's way into the house and ended up peeking out beside the window seat. There wasn't even that much of the stuff outside.

No, no, no! Ivy is a real thug. We had a variegated ivy growing up the side of our house which looked really nice, but then it bent the gas pipe so had to go. It took forever to get it off the rendering and we had to have it patched where the ivy pulled it away from the wall. We chopped it down and used tree stump killer to get rid of it.

We have been growing a wisteria for 5 years. It’s still small and quite beautiful. We haven’t pruned it yet but trailing it along wires. This year is the first year it is blooming in abundance! It’s an early flower compared to others around us but it’s been worth the wait (thought I’d brought a dud!). We will prime it this year. Our door is painted a wisteria colour - it’s going to look amazing. We got a cool front door number and painted our masonary F&B downpipe.

We won’t prime it, we will prune it!

Not in a terrace pleeeease! Ivy really isn't suitable for urban environments at all and I wish supermarkets etc would stop selling it. For many years we had ivy absolutely blanketing the top end of our very small garden, climbing up neighbour's trees on each side and then climbing over itself along the garages that back on to the gardens. I'm not exaggerating when I say that in places it was over 30 ft high- wish I could find a photo I took last year! All the time I could manage doing gardening (bad chest and arthritis) was just trying to keep it back from the lawn. And spiders!! My god, the spiders. And their nests... I'm not even arachnophobic, but no thanks.

Happily, the people on both sides have had the ivied trees cut down in the last year and I can't wait to start doing my own gardening instead of just mopping up theirs.

Unless you're planning to do your neighbour's gardening as well as your own, steer clear.

We had wisteria growing around the main window of our very similar-sounding previous house. It was good at adding some character and I would recommend it. Grows very fast and we were always cutting it so that the weight of it wouldn't bring down a drainpipe, but it didn't harm the brickwork.

As said, ivy is evil.

Ivy=spiders.

We used to live somewhere with ivy growing up the outside wall. Caused serious issues with damp and black mould.

It damages brickwork and is a bastard to get rid of. The suckers are really strong. I needed a sander to get them off my fence.

Virginia creeper is much nicer, although it sheds its leaves in the autumn, it's still beautiful. Most work free and the suckers pull off easily.

We have been growing a wisteria for 5 years. It’s still small and quite beautiful

That’s quite unusual. Did you buy it very small? Or grow from seed? Ours was probably about four foot when bought, for twenty odd quid, and now is about fifteen foot high and at least thirty foot across the front of the house. It’s been flowering for two years and we have had it for the same amount of time, four or five years. Wisteria grows up to ten foot a year on average. It really is like a weed.

Don't do it!

No way would I let ivy grow on my house walls. It damages exterior brickwork and the tendrils can breakthrough into the interior - causing further damage and damp.

Out of character or not, abuse is never ok and I’m shocked at posters trying to excuse it.

Op, you need to be Cl we with him, no matter what he’s going through, if he ever abuses and degrades you again it’s over.

Ivy can damage brickwork, the rendering holding the bricks together, downpipes, guttering, it can grow into your drains, and it can affect the performance of your rainwater goods causing damp in your walls. If you have ever seen a property that has had extensive ivy removed from it you will appreciate what we mean

Don't do Virginia Creeper either!
It is a very rampant plant which you would need to cut back very severely every year to stop it covering everything.
If it grows through other plants, you can never really get rid of it.

It is creepy.

Ivy also gets into roofs. I am fighting to keep it out of our back neighbour’s house as it self propagates and climbs quickly up the wall. I despair letting it get under the eaves and into the tiles!!!!

Reckon I will broke my ‘no herbicide’ rule to eradicate it.

And to remove lots of ivy means a day of welts on any exposed skin for me.

Sorry posted to soon, I'd be terrified of huge spiders lurking.

@Bluntness100 yes, we expected it to go wild! It’s about as tall, but about 6 foot wide. Just over our front door. It was £80 (London) and about 5/6 foot. It was in a sunny sport, good water, decent soil. We really thought it may die. Really looks great with the door! Last year there were 3 flowers, now about 100!

Every time I see i house with ivy I imagine all the spiders hiding underneath waiting to crawl into the house. Definitely not for me!!

Not ivy for all the reasons already said. How about wisteria?

The first flat that I owned had an external garage (away from the flat, at the end of a cul de sac).
One of the mortgage conditions was that I had to remove all of the ivy from the garage, as the building society/surveyor were concerned that it would damage the brickwork.