Bloody ivy!

[wowfudge]

I spent hours yesterday tackling a very overgrown hedge which is backed by a low wall with taller brick posts every couple of metres. There was trellis but it was completely rotten and only held in place by ivy which had also been strategically tied to it in multiple places.

I started out trying to just remove the ivy. What I discovered was that every shrub has ivy planted behind it, hard against the wall. Deliberately planted as I found some ancient garden centre tags. I can't dig the ivy out, although believe me I tried. There are now no leaves to put weedkiller on. Would a stump killer product work to kill the ivy off? Or does anyone have any other suggestions? I don't want to lose the shrubs if I can help it.

I'm going to have to hard prune the shrubs as they're completely out of hand and weren't pruned/maintained by the people we bought the house from. I'm hoping they'll rejuvenate rather needing to be replaced

This says apply to the actual vine so not having leaves isn’t an issue.

“Try cutting through the vine about 12inches above the ground and treating the freshly cut vine with glyphosate weed-killer, this will kill the ivy, stopping it from doing more damage to your fence. The bushy ivy will die off, making it easier to see if it can be untangled from the fence“

www.flowerpotman.com/garden-pest-control/how-to-clear-ivy/

i would paint neat glyphosate weed killer on the remaining stump/stems, and keep repeating if required. wear rubber gloves.

Thanks both - I think I'll need to freshly cut the stumps before doing that for maximum impact! I didn't cut them too short as I planned to dig them out.

It too years to get rid of ivy from our stone wall and yes used tree stump stuff even though I dislike chemicals

@Oldraver - how did the tree stump killer work in comparison with other things you used?