You heard that right.
An enormous pine tree was covered in Ivy in the next-door neighbor’s yard and was a few feet from the property line. My husband was sitting in the carport enjoying the day when he heard a loud, continuous cracking sound. Suspecting this was bigger than a branch, he ran for cover in the doorway. After a few loud seconds, the tree came crashing through the roof of the family room and carport, demolished the fence and hit the side of our opposite neighbor’s house. After the dust settled, he looked around and saw the destruction. The door frame was still in tacked and a lonely 2×8 was perched right above him impeded only by the upper frame of the door. He knew he was lucky but felt a sharp pain in his back.
He rushed to the ER and described the situation to the nurse, turned around, lifted his shirt and showed her his back. Within minutes he was ready for an ultrasound. As the technicians scanned his back, they spotted 5.5 cm aneurysm on his aorta. Long story short, he conferred with his cardiologist and scheduled surgery.
So, if the neighbor was responsible, the tree wouldn’t have been killed by ivy, destroyed the family room, carport and fence and my husband would have probably died of an aneurysm. THIS IS THE ONLY BENEFIT OF GROWING IVY THAT I KNOW!
English Ivy, Hedera helix, in its native environment is very beneficial to wildlife but it’s not native in the United States and it is considered an invasive species.
Walk through an urban forest in Atlanta and look at the ground. Chances are, you’ll see ivy. It’s everywhere too. You’ll even see it in the Presidio in San Francisco.
How did it get there you ask? Most likely it crept from neighboring yards. For instance, three of my neighbors have ivy in their yard. The one behind me has about 5 huge trees with ivy making its way to the crown, threatening death to the tree and to crush my house. The other two have it creeping past their borders forcing me to fight it year after year.
Why is it so bad? English ivy is not native to the United States, so it offers no benefits to wildlife. It blocks the native seeds in the seed bank. It climbs trees and weakens them the longer it’s allowed to continue.
I often volunteer at local urban parks to remove invasive plants. What a proud feeling when after the ivy is removed in an area, watching our native plants finally push to the surface. Same thing in my own yard, trillium and ginger, sedges and sumac, stuck in the soil, finally emerged when the ivy was removed.
If you choose to grow ivy in your yard, it’s up to you to keep it contained, please.
