Ivygate

[housinghero]

Can you tell me it am being unreasonable please

My next door neighbour is in her 70’s and lives on her own. She has an obsession with the ivy that I am growing up the back of the house and over my pergola. She has asked me and I have cut it back so that it is not growing on her side of the house . A few weeks ago I caught her hanging out if her bedroom window with a saw trying to hack it off . So I cut it at the bottom again so that it would then die back but only on the stems that were nearest to her side so that some still grew. Since we have been on holiday she has either come round and cut it or leant over with her saw and cut all the stem so the whole lot has died . So I am left with dead leaves all up my house which I can’t get down because I can’t get on a step ladder from my side and I also have spinal arthritis: I am fuming. I don’t plan on a neighbour dispute over this but after a horrendous week of family suicide and ill health his is the last thing I need.

Sorry for your loss OP. I don’t think the neighbour’s age warrants such discussion. Maybe she would have been as bothered by it at 40 as she is at 70+.

Do not write her a letter! That takes it into the territory of a neighbour dispute that needs to be declared if you sell your house!

@TheNoodlesIncident

The stump is right in with other plants..do you smear it into the stump? Or it's just resting on it? How long does it take.
Could I drill holes again and push it in?

I'm just wondering if I can borrow your neighbour the ivy killer; in my experience the stuff is bloody rampant and impossible to get rid of. I'm quietly baffled that anyone would deliberately encourage it and unsurprised that your neighbour was worried it would spread to her wall.

English ivy can cause structural damage to buildings so yabu

I will tell any person to their face or online that their comments about people falling out of windows are vile. I will not apologise for that because I am not sorry for saying it. The comment is vile. As is calling everyone else mad and telling people to fuck off for pointing it out. And no one has called the OP evil on this thread. Those are your words that you are continuing to repeat.

Your neighbour should not have come onto your property and killed the ivy however much she dislikes it, but you should take great care that none of it spreads onto her wall.
As a person over 70 I think you should handle it exactly as you would if she was in her forties.
You mention in your first sentence that she is over 70 and lives alone, as if it's the most relevant thing. She is just a neighbour who dislikes ivy (like many people on here) and doesn't want it on her walls.
I think you intended to imply that she's an old witch with nothing better to think about.
There is another poster who has an "old boy" living next door.
I know you are considerate and help her out but she shouldn't expect it.
Some posters have very patronising attitudes.

I hold my hands up - I got that one wrong, that poster called the OP's words evil, and the OP not the nicest person. Apologies!

Ivy cools buildings and causes less damp then bare buildings

www.rhs.org.uk/science/articles/ivy-homes

Because old people can't be pricks 🤔

You're happy to extend that to me and assume I've got stressful things going on in my life? Well how patronisingly good of you. As it is, you can assume away because its my business. I can assure you that whether I do or not, the last thing I'd complain about is a bit of dead ivy.

P.s. I am actually someone who is equally happy to tell someone something to their face. What she said was vile. End of.

I've drilled holes and packed it into those, covering the top with a plastic bag or similar, or cut slashes across and packed it into that. The plastic is to keep it getting too wet from rain and also just to make sure wildlife doesn't give it a nibble, however unlikely that is. It takes a while, I usually apply then forget about it and get on with gardening. Ivy, yucca and ash have been treated in autumn and have not regrown in spring, so it could have been a few weeks or longer.

Application is different for stumps than for leafy growth, as leaves are wetted with the solution (product plus water) rather than granules. Surrounding leaves must be protected from overspray.

It's a much better product than a lot of weedkillers that linger in the soil, it actually breaks down quite quickly (hence its use as compost accelerant).

You are growing a plant that damages brickwork right on the boundary between your property and hers though. It will constantly spread onto her brickwork quickly each time it’s cut back. You can tell from the old vines that it had been right over on her side.

Plus if a 70 could lean down and cut it from her bedroom window it was clearly spreading quite far over!

Bloody hell. Is every mn thread now destined to end in arguments?

Probably. What’s it got to do with you, pal? 😉

I often wonder if we were all sat in a pub together, would we end up brawling?

I asked him and it was a few years ago and he can't remember. He started off by buying something that you paint on the new leaves and it gets into the plant and starts killing it. He did that when the neighbours were still there. When it was empty and he replaced the fence he dug up as much as he could and he thinks he used something like Round Up.

I'm obviously not condoning killing the neighbours plants but it ruined our fence and we couldn't replace it without at least cutting it down

I often wonder if we were all sat in a pub together, would we end up brawling?

Certainly seems that way sometimes

The benefit of the doubt that I'm not going to assume the worst motives in everything you write. Because I don't know anything about you, and assuming the worst in people is just a really depressing way to live.

The gleeful self-righteous pile-ons on Mumsnet are frankly pretty grim to watch sometimes.

Nah, everyone would be achingly polite. Especially those who claim to have no problem saying what they think to people's faces...

😴

@housinghero I'm no gardener but if as you suspect she has sawn through the stem of your Ivy you may be able to save it. If you can locate the slice/cut you should be able to bind it together, I think there's a gardening term, and it should regrow.

Found this.

Hold the broken edges together and place the stake or splint along the edge. Wrap closely with a stretchy binding such as nylons, plant tape, or even electrical tape. The binding needs to have some give so the stem can grow. Brace the stem if it is dangling so there is no additional pressure on it as it heals.