Ivy

FatVonD

suejb2 wrote: »

I'm all for wee beasties, as long as they are outside but you'll get them climbing in through the windows from their vertical hotel.

I hadn't even thought of that :eek:

I have been partially 'cured' of my caterpillar phobia but I still don't want the !!!!!!s crawling through the windows.

Artytarty

My mothers house is plastered and painted, so smooth. She planted a nice variegated ivy in a large tub in the yard years ago, it clung to the wall, very pretty, then it reached the top and the roots grew under the coping stone or fancy top of the wall-forcing several off and cracking them.
I wouldn't have it.
Virginia creeper in less destructive, wisteria lovely but slow growing.
Now a cottage covered I roses...ahhhh!

nimbo

to me Ivy screams - 'lots of work' when it needs cutting back, and the walls need cleaning of all the nasty clingy things it leaves behind.....

I love the beautiful stuff that goes red in the autumn, but not on my house (well maybe one the one I currently rent, but not when I buy)...

Melaniep101

Our neighbour has ivy everywhere, in fact it's quite intrusive to our property - he has it growing up all the fences which then grows through to our side and is currently growing into our garage and summer house :-(

I personally hate the stuff but that may be because I'm so sick of cutting it all back!

tom9980

Ivy causing issues is not a fallacy its very real. My MiL/FiL house had a lot of ivy especially around the chimney at the bottom it grew most of the way up because there health has not been the best they failed to control its growth. Its a very old building 300 or so years old, and to its age there were of course cracks and maintenance issues covered up by the ivy and it had been growing in the cracks and underneath some of the ivy was scorched black it really wouldn't have taken much more of that before it set the house in fire.

Anything more than a few square metres of coverage is far too much IMO.

FatVonD

Okay, the Ivy has to go, Wisteria it is!

tea_lover

Well that will keep you busy while you're deciding when to move

Gloomendoom

Ivy is great... on other peoples' houses.

I had it on mine but I've stripped it all off now. It can damage the structure underneath by forcing out the pointing and the face of stonework.

It does however, keep the house cooler in summer and probably warmer in winter. If you are a wildlife fanatic and love spiders, Ivy is a must.

Believe me, you made the right choice with the wisteria.

Slinky

My neighbours stripped the ivy off their house probably 10 years ago now. You can still see loads of suckery bits on the brickwork, they will never come off. I'd run a mile from it because of spiders.

arbroath_lass

Personally I like it BUT nobody is going to be put off if there isn't any. They'll just plan to plant some if they really want it. It doesn't work the other way round. People wonder what it is hiding, if they'll get insects in the house and so on.

What about a couple of those planters with trellis at the door? With some climbing plants it is kind of a midway "solution".