Neighbour growing ivy up my garage!

[lisalash]

My garage goes along the bottom of my garden and along the bottom of my neighbors garden. I cannot reach this part of my garage has it acts as a wall at the bottom of their garden. They have ivy growing up this side of my garage, reaching up to my garage roof. I am really concerned that is going to do some damage. I do not really have much to do with my neighbors, just the odd, hello, when I see them but I guess the obvious solution is to mention my concerns to them. Does anyone know where I stand with this and should it do any damage, are they responsible for the cost of repair?

Also, the fence between this same neighbor and myself, which belongs to me, is slowly being damaged as they are growing ivy and other plants up it. I have noticed more recently that the plants are pulling on my fence and slowly damaging it. Part of the fence is being pulled towards their garden. I cannot afford to replace this at present, so again, where do I stand?

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!!!

 

[gregers]

oh dear i seemed to have thrown 'weed killer' all over your ivy in the dark.

 

[HERTS P&D]

What you need is a systemic weedkiller. A systemic weedkiller is absorbed by the plant through the leaves and poisons the entire system, including the roots. For that reason, the more weedkiller you can spray on the leaves, the better, because that means the plant absorbs more poison. In theory it won't poison the soil around the plant, but if you are spraying, some drops of spray could land on other plants that you want to keep, so if in doubt, paint it onto the leaves with a brush.

The only systemic weedkilling chemical licensed for sale to the general public in the UK is glyphosate, which you can find in herbicides such as Roundup.

One tip: the more glyphosate you can paint/spray on the leaves the better - so DON'T chop back the ivy and then spray what's left. It's much more effective to spray the whole overgrown mass, so that more poison can be absorbed by the plant.

Hope that helps.

Andy

 

[lisalash]

Thanks for replying, but the ivy is in my next door neighbors garden, so to get the weedkiller onto the leaves I would have to put a ladder up to my fence and spray it over into my neighbors garden. Food for thought Maybe I should have a chat with them first.

 

[HERTS P&D]

This might help:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/general-purpose-pressure-sprayer/invt/170671/

Andy

 

[andreaccc]

its never a good idea to fall out with your neighbours but i would ask them to do something about this first as they probably dont realise whats happening you need to point it out in a nice way

i would also refer to your deeds to check exactly who owns what were and if it is your wall then they shouldnt be growing stuff up it - i would offer to go round and cut it down as its doing some 'damage' to your wall

if they get funny with your i would go for the week killer or i spawn of slugs

 

[big-all]

yes definatley talk to them
for three years i put up with a horrible plant that grew over the fence and needed chopping more often than the grass
i didnt want to upset the neighbours
as they had only moved in they didnt want to upset me by chopping it down

 

[cajar]

They are legally responsible for damage caused to your property by ivy growing from their property.

 

[JohnD]

Ivy is very difficult to kill by spraying as it does not soak into the waxy leaves. I have managed it by cutting, and dabbing neat glyphosate onto the stumps.

Round here we have an ivy mite that attacks the young leaves and kills the plant. Send me a large SAE.

 

[xdave]

Double check that the wall is yours and not party, and if so then your first port of call will be to have a friendly chat with the neighbours to point out your concerns. It could be that they have no idea that it may cause problems and would not hesitate to remove it when made aware. Most neighbours are good people if given the chance.

You could suggest that they could errect two posts at either end of your wall and stretch some wire in between them, then grow the ivy up the wires. If they do the work early in the growing season then any branches that are sacrificed in the removal should sprout back and by the end of the season it would have recovered well.

 

[joeandrews]

I like the sound of this glyphosate.

Could I use it to kill a bed of weeds, then turn the soil over and grow new plants, or will the chemical remain in the soil and kill my new plants?

Thanks.

 

[JohnD]

it only goes in through the leaves. It is inactivated by ordinary soil (but possibly not by e.g. clean sand). So you can spray and dig.

You can even sow seeds, and spray the day before they come up (farmers do this) to kill the surrounding weeds

 

[joeandrews]

I'm loving this glyphosate!

 

[chapeau]

I do not really have much to do with my neighbors, just the odd, hello, when I see them but I guess the obvious solution is to mention my concerns to them. Does anyone know where I stand with this and should it do any damage, are they responsible for the cost of repair?

If their ivy damages your fence/wall (if it's a party wall/fence then it's still your fence too) then you could in theory take them to court to pay for any damage. If you kill their ivy with weedkiller you could in theory be arrested for criminal damage. So the easiest solution is to have a chat.

 

[welshjeff]

I had a similar problem when i moved into new house with 11 years of ivy climbing over the fence from neighbours side.

I cut and scraped my side of the fence, but as soon as spring arrived, it started coming back through and over and the neighbours who aren't sociable began tacking new climb strings to encourage growth. I guessed they are not taking the hint.

I used Vitax SBK 1L Brushwood Killer from Amazon. I sprayed it neat on the leaves and vines on my side of fence and hanging over my fence and poured it along bottom of my side of fence to attack the roots, on my side.

Result - Napalm!! It kicked in visibly a week later and quickly killed the ivy withering it away. No sign of any recovery all Spring or Summer.