Easy Steps to Kill Ivy – Gardener Corner

Easy Steps to Kill Ivy

It is always a lovely sight to have your little garden at home. So many things can disturb your growing vegetation if care is not taken. There are several types of Ivy and can be a nuisance to your home if you fail to curb their growth. Among the types of Ivy is the poison ivy. Just like its name, it releases a toxic substance that produces a painful rash on any part of your body that touches it. With this, you should understand it is unsafe to have around, especially if you have kids and pets around. There are several ways to get rid of the ivy. Unless you know what a poison ivy looks like, you may end up having a rash when cutting it. So in today’s post, we are going to be looking at the safest method to get rid of the ivy. Nothing is safer than using white vinegar. Using white vinegar, here are steps to get rid of your ivy problem.

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Materials Needing

Garden or bottle sprayer

Garden gloves

Garden boots

Protective clothing

Garbage can

Dress Appropriately

Just to be extra safe, you would need to dress accordingly before going close to the ivy. Ensure you wear hand gloves to protect your hands, even if you are using the spray. You should also wear garden boots to protect your feet.

Get a Sprayer

As earlier stated, it is best you stay away from the ivy to avoid contact, as much as possible. One way to do this is by using a garden sprayer. If you don’t own one, you should go borrow or just buy one. If you are working with yours, then you know the last liquid you poured into it. If you borrowed it, then start by flushing the sprayer with clean water. This will help get rid of any leftover insecticides, fertilizer, or herbicides. If you are dealing with a little ivy vegetation, you could make use of a bottle sprayer.

Fill It Up

Once the garden or bottle sprayer is ready for use, fill it up with white vinegar or with the amount you know will be adequate for the job.

Spray the Ivy Infestation

With the sprayer fully loaded with white vinegar, directly spray the ivy vegetation. Focus more on the roots because if you can kill its roots, in a matter of days, the other part of the plant dies off. When spraying the ivy vegetation, take care not to spray the white vinegar on wanted vegetation. This is because white vinegar is not specific and would also destroy your wanted vegetation. So if you have the ivy vegetation growing among wanted vegetation, white vinegar may not be your preferred choice.

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· Note: a good alternative to white vinegar is the mixture of salt and soap. All you have to do get a gallon of water and mix 3 pounds of salt with a quarter cup of liquid soap. Use this estimation to make the right quantity for your sprayer. Another alternative is using boiling water. All you have to do is pour boiling water on the root end of the ivy every day. In about a week, you should start seeing results.

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Observe the Ivy Vegetation

Usually it takes a week to two for you to start observing any changes. To know if the white vinegar was successful, the ivy leaves should turn brown and fall down unaided. If the leaves are still green after two weeks or there are still patches of greens on leaves, then the spray was not effective. You should consider spraying the ivy vegetation again.

Dispose of the Ivy

If effectively down, you should have brown ivy leaves lying on the ground and still hanging. Wear your protective gloves when removing or disposing of the dead leaves. Ivy can be a bit tricky and could still have some of its toxic substance in it.

Warning

Do not ever use your hands to remove any type of ivy. If you want to remove ivy leaves that did not fall to the ground, ensure you are wearing your garden gloves. To be extra safe, you could just use a pair of clippers or loppers to cut and pull the vegetation.

James G. Craig
 

James G. Craig is a gardening enthusiast who splits his spare time between growing vegetables, preening his flower gardens, and blogging about his experiences at the Gardener Corner.

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