Ivy - the big guns join in the defence

[GrendelsMum]

Oxford study finds that ivy can protect walls.

See, we told you

tw.physorg.com/193055372

That's true, I love ivy, it's one of my favourite plants, especially after rain and it's berries are lovely but I don't think people notice them at all, much enjoyed by butterflies and birds though.

OK GM, but it kills loads of other plants/shrubs/trees.

I can see why ivy is shuddersome. For me, its not so much that it needs holding back or it will kill other plants, its more the gradual snaking, choking way it smothers things in its inexorable path to take over the wooooooooooooorld. Also, in a vulturelike fashion, how it grasps at dead trees so they look like ivy trees.

And also I read a ghostly comic when I was about 8 that had a story in it where lots of people were strangled by ivy snaking up through cracks in the pavement.

Not keen on it meself.

Hah! Now your real feelings are revealed, Taffetacat. You think it's going to pop up and strangle you...

correct

We had a big refurb done on the house last year, HUGE relief. There was ivy COMING IN through the conservatory. It was only a short climb, at nightfall, to my bedroom....

Loathe ivy. There was some growing in through my mum's landing window, letting all the spiders in. Yeuch.

I lived in a basement for 10 yrs and had a container garden in the yard. I loved the way ivy crept in through the bathroom window. Ok, I had to give it the odd trim but it was atmospheric. I don't think it smothers plants only creates a nice foil for winter and then in spring all your bulbs pop up through it so promisingly.

Also I enjoyed watching a little visiting wren hopping through all my container ivy searching for spiders.

And I'm no fan of spiders! They scare me!

Love ivy GM - in the right place! Have a huge dry inhospitable bank which I've just started planting up with a variety called "Lightfinger". There's a cracking variety called "Melanie" too.