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Ivy removal

Just bought a house and the yard has been overtaken by English ivy. It's traveled to both neighbors and the houses behind mine. I used ground clear and that seemed to work on some of it. I've just been ripping it out by hand for the past week but it seems never ending. Any advice on how to get rid of it?

thanks
 
I have been over ran with a poison oak/ivy hybrid it's
in three places I used round up extended. I also used it on my reg weeds I don't know what they are, but some die off quicker than others but after 3 applications the weeds have pretty much dried up. Except the poison stuff that is hard to kill. English ivy might be as hard to kill as my poison stuff? Glwts
Cheers.
 
Enough Round Up will kill it, but you still have the vine mass to contend with. You can also cut through the vine stem at any point and it will die above the cut. the closer to the ground the more will die. It must be pulled off trees and structures by hand and out of the ground. Been there and done all of that.

We brought home a potted ivy from my father in laws funeral 28 years ago, and planted it, It tried to take over a fairly large tree and side of my house and deck. I cut back, dug up and killed off all that growing in the ground and now have three topidary type plantings remaining in large pots.
 
I had a lot in my yard when we bought our house. I read a lot about it and talked to a lot of people. The trouble with spraying it for removal is that the leaves are waxy and resist most commonly available treatments. The single most effective method is manual removal. You can kill it by removing enough of the leaves too, but that can take a while; if you hit it with a weed whacker and remove the leaves, it cannot perform photosynthesis and it will eventually die. You can also cover it with a tarp and effectively do the same thing, might actually be faster.

We ended up pulling a lot of ours, though I think you never get all of it and I still find it trying to pop up here and there. If you can remove the vine part of it underground it will help. I pulled some vines out of the back yard that were as thick as a kids arm. If its been growing in the yard for a long time, you will likely have a constant battle with it. Good luck.
 
Thanks to everyone for the advice. I did just end up ripping it all out by hand the taking a roto tiller to it. I'm going to put down some new top soil and see if I can get some grass to grow.
 
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