{"id":3373,"date":"2026-03-16T13:13:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/?p=3373"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:33:48","slug":"ivy-saved-my-husbands-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/16\/ivy-saved-my-husbands-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivy Saved My Husband\u2019s Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Ivy Saved My Husbands Life<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"tree\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

You heard that right.\u00a0<\/p>

An enormous pine tree was covered in Ivy in the next-door neighbor\u2019s yard and was a few feet from the property line.\u00a0 My husband was sitting in the carport enjoying the day when he heard a loud, continuous cracking sound.\u00a0 Suspecting this was bigger than a branch, he ran for cover in the doorway.\u00a0 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\u2019s house. After the dust settled, he looked around and saw the destruction.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He knew he was lucky but felt a sharp pain in his back.\u00a0<\/p>

He rushed to the ER and described the situation to the nurse, turned around, lifted his shirt and showed her his back.\u00a0 Within minutes he was ready for an ultrasound.\u00a0 As the technicians scanned his back, they spotted 5.5 cm aneurysm on his aorta.\u00a0 Long story short, he conferred with his cardiologist and scheduled surgery.<\/p>

So, if the neighbor was responsible, the tree wouldn\u2019t have been killed by ivy, destroyed the family room, carport and fence and my husband would have probably died of an aneurysm.\u00a0 THIS IS THE ONLY BENEFIT OF GROWING IVY THAT I KNOW!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

English Ivy, Hedera helix, in its native environment is very beneficial to wildlife but it\u2019s not native in the United States and it is considered an invasive species.<\/p>

Walk through an urban forest in Atlanta and look at the ground. Chances are, you\u2019ll see ivy. \u00a0It\u2019s everywhere too.\u00a0 You\u2019ll even see it in the Presidio in San Francisco.<\/p>

How did it get there you ask? Most likely it crept from neighboring yards.\u00a0 For instance, three of my neighbors have ivy in their yard.\u00a0 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. \u00a0The other two have it creeping past their borders forcing me to fight it year after year.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Why is it so bad?\u00a0 English ivy is not native to the United States, so it offers no benefits to wildlife.\u00a0 It blocks the native seeds in the seed bank.\u00a0 It climbs trees and weakens them the longer it\u2019s allowed to continue.<\/p>

I often volunteer at local urban parks to remove invasive plants.\u00a0 What a proud feeling when after the ivy is removed in an area, watching our native plants finally push to the surface. \u00a0Same thing in my own yard, trillium and ginger, sedges and sumac, stuck in the soil, finally emerged when the ivy was removed. \u00a0<\/p>

If you choose to grow ivy in your yard, it\u2019s up to you to keep it contained, please.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ivy\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Ivy on the forest floor<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ivy\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Workday ivy removal<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Restoration\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
How the forest is supposed to look<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ivy Saved My Husbands Life You heard that right.\u00a0 An enormous pine tree was covered in Ivy in the next-door neighbor\u2019s yard and was a few feet from the property line.\u00a0 My husband was sitting in the carport enjoying the day when he heard a loud, continuous cracking sound.\u00a0 Suspecting this was bigger than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3373"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3405,"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions\/3405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicgardenco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}