Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm trimming the ivy on a fence - there'll be about five wheelbarrow loads of leaves and thin stalks. Can this be added safely to the compost heap, or should I put it in the Council's garden recycling bin? Thanks.

Good timing, I was just a local garden/allotments society and asked for you... Even though we don't have poison ivy here (I thought only kew gardens had any in the UK...) there is a guy from Canada who used to deal with the stuff for a living. He says don't compost it. Send it to the council. Particularly if youre allergic

Sorry if my headline was misleading, I thought all ivy was potentially poisonous? Mine is just ordinary ivy - mostly all green, just the occasional leaf variagated with yellow in it. Anyway, I've played safe and put it in the bin!

Totally harmless but almost impossible to persuade to rot down. I guess you can't bonfire for some reason.

Ah I see

Ivy is a trick one to compost. Cuttings will root in the compost heap and take over... So you did right

compost this is an amazing site if you're ever unsure

I've just taken a car full of ivy to the dumpit site, it won't rot down, it is too much faff to get it in the shredder and it won't rot down for ages, also it won't burn until it is very dry.

It grows through and over my boundary wall from council owned land and it is gradually demolishing my wall by growing through it. I try to manage it by giving it a close trim on my side in spring after the insects have had the benefit of the flowers in winter.

My aim is to stop the shoots coming through the wall and I've tried a strong weed killer on the shoots as they come through with limited success. Has anyone any suggestions? It covers 60 feet of wall so far and I don't want it to take over the rest of the wall.

It has reached the bit next to an herbaceous border so is getting tricky. Mine is normal ivy too.

Now I am getting concerned about oldherbaceous

in another thread this morning he mentions making use of Big Bertha and in this thread Ivy is chasing after him. I'm wondering just what his appeal is.
If he mentions Daphne I shall know its a scent thing.

Now on the subject of Plums Ivy, what weed killers have you tried.

Have you tried SBK Brushwood killer, I repeat used it some years ago and no longer have a ivy problem

I used Resolva last time Pasnip. My son put me off using SBK when he told me it was what the Americans used in the Vietnam war as Agent Orange.

PLUMPUDDING wrote:I used Resolva last time Pasnip. My son put me off using SBK when he told me it was what the Americans used in the Vietnam war as Agent Orange.

Hi PP,

The production of Agent Orange was halted in the 1970s, existing stocks were destroyed and it is no longer used. Production of the 2,4,5-T component of Agent Orange was also halted in the 1980s in most countries. However, 2,4-D is still produced by Dow Agroscience and is a common component of over 70 products, including Scott’s Weed and Feed, Miracle-Grow Weed and Feed, Weed B Gone and many others.


Even the seemingly most innocuous weed killer needs care in use.
Agent Orange was a combination of chemicals that defoliated everything it touched. Its dioxin content made it lethal to humans who were under the spraying planes and it polluted soil & waterways et cetera.

Todays SBK product states on the package that it is formulated not to harm grass. A far cry from Agent Orange.

Hope you find a solution. ................. (See what I did there )

A friend, who has a small field, allowed a local farmer to put a few sheep on it. The first thing that they ate was the ivy which covered the ditches.

I should explain that in this area people call dykes,ditches and vice versa. I think that sounds real Irish. Hope you understand it .

Regards,
Gerry.