Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
9/3/99 - Several times in past issues of the "Weekly Diary" I have written about the difficulty of controlling invasive plants in the flower garden, but so far I have not mentioned the one that gives me the most difficulty: English ivy Hedera helix. First introduced into our neighborhood many years ago, Gertrude and I soon discovered that, while ivy has its place, it is very difficult to keep it in its place. We soon found that our flower beds were not the place for English ivy, which quickly smothered all other plants. We also found (as you may have noticed in some of the garden pictures appended to the "Diary") that English ivy looks good covering the brick walls of our garage, helping it to look more like a part of the garden.
Even on the garage walls, however, ivy must be carefully controlled. We must trim the top vines three or more times a year, or ivy will be found peeping into the garage, or climbing on the roof where it damages the shingles. Furthermore, any vines that creep out from the roots or dangle from the climbing vines must be cut away before they take over the flower bed beside the garage--altogether a challenging task of control, but worth it to keep the garage walls looking as though they belonged in the garden.
The real task that English ivy sets for me is to control the ivy that insists on creeping into "Gertrude's Garden" over, under, through, and around the fencing that we had erected many years ago to provide a garden playpen for our children where dogs, which were allowed to run unleashed in those days, would not bother them. I spent two days of my garden work this week turning back the advancing armies of ivy. If you have ever tried to control ivy, you know the difficulty, because ivy creepers put down roots as they advance. Cutting the vine, therefore, is not enough: you must pull up the entire length or it will simply grow from its new roots. My advice: eschew Hedra helix in your garden!
I received some justifiable complaints that last week's garden picture did not show clearly enough the lovely blue Browallia speciosa that I was describing. The photograph for this week does more justice to one of my favorite flowers.
8/27/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
9/10/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
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