Neighbours complaints about my ivy

tbh I think ivy is a total menace, it strangles others plants and I can understand why your neighbours might be fed up. I don't know what the legal situation is but I do believe in maintaining good relationships with my neighbours. Why not ask them round for coffee and discuss the matter in a friendly manner to see if you can come up with a compromise that suits everyone. That's what I would do.

Thanks Foxy, their words thus far have been "the ivy has got to go"

Not really friendly
..

Ivy is one of the best plants you can grow for wild life.

Perhaps your neighbours feel that you are not controlling it?

Why not employ someone to give it a good haircut every spring? The price would be worth your privacy.

Tell your neighbours what you intend to do and then save for a handyman😄. But do keep it as we have such little wild life. In the U.K. and Ivy is a friend.

PS - they can’t force you to get rid of it if is within the confines of your garden.

Oh it’s the bane of my life it destroys old walls and has grown up the side of my house I ve killed the roots but still have all the old stuff hanging in there I hate it with a vengeance
It’s so invasive and can bring you out in hives ( some people)
I m with your neighbours all the way
My daughter has her neighbours Ivy hanging all over her wall onto her side it’s a menace

Thank you everyone, helps to have perspective

Ivy flowers are one of the few pollens that bees can feed on during the winter. I have an ivy wall and always leave the flowers. but I do cut it back hard below them.. If you kill the ivy as we had to when one wall collapsed it can become quite ugly. I don't think your neighbours can force you to get rid of the ivy if it is on your side,it would require a systemic poison, but maybe they could erect a fence on their side?

I have it on both fences. Very mature, thick stems. Am slowly getting rid of it. Hate it. Very invasive and difficult get rid of it now, and plant something else like rose bushes or native hedging.
Good luck.

Sorry Dazy but Ivy is very invasive, can't abide the stuff, however I be do hope you are able to come to an amicable solution with your neighbours.

I agree with foxie48, it is a menace, particularly when the roots get into the mortar in walls, and if it prevents you maintaining your fences. I let it scramble up the apple tree at the end of my garden, and I’ve got a limited amount on one fence that I use for cutting for winter arrangements, but otherwise I pull it up to avoid it causing damage.

If it’s a big job, would your neighbours help you to get rid of it, at least in the section that borders their garden?

They have no right to demand it’s removal it’s a hedge of sensible height.
However if it is removed which will be difficult what are you going to replace it with, there may be a chemical that controls ivy I’ve tried glyphosate that doesn’t work but will kill most other things.
I don’t see a cheap easy resolution to replacing it

I have ivy growing on my front fence and I have deliberately allowed it to spread to hid the sight of the scruffy car one of my neighbours parks outside my house. Every year I ask the gardener to trim it when he does the trees and bushes. I make sure that it does not intrude next door so she had no grounds for complaint. Under no circumstances will I get rid of it. If any of my neighbours tried to "tell" me what to do on my own property they would be told in no uncertain terms to go forth and multiply. I do not kowtow to neighbours.

Thank you, I can't see a cheap way forward either. The frustrating thing is , I didn't plant it. My previous owner clearly went mad with the stuff and laurel bushes on the other side.
Neither bother me but my moany neighbours are constantly on at me.

Our neighbours ivy grew into our garage and damaged the wood and felt in the roof for years . It drove us mad . We lived next door to them for overv30 years but it caused a rift between more than anything because of the dismissive way they spoke about it if we mentioned it . So I'm with your neighbours! Our new young neighbours have thankfully got rid of it !

Don’t pander to the neighbours! Ivy is wonderful for wildlife,it also makes good laundry wash liquid.It creates oxygen.

I wouldn’t want it on my actual house,but I have it growing up my fence.

Perhaps thin it a bit,but don’t remove it,our wildlife will have nowhere to live soon.

There are lots of plants which are non invasive that support wildlife, it certainly doesn’t have to be ivy. Here’s the RHS bee friendly suggestions, I wouldn’t go for the willow either myself though, as that’s also a menace. The advice is not to chop your perennials back hard in the autumn, as that’s where many insects overwinter.
www.rhs.org.uk/garden-inspiration/seasonal/bee-friendly-winter-plants

We had a neighbour who complained about an unsightly wall so I planted variegated ivies but they did need a lot of attention and severe haircuts. It was in a rather precarious place and I felt quite nervous getting in there to control it so didnt clip it as often. Then another neighbour mentioned (nicely) that it was strangling their bushes so we had it removed.
It was probably the best thing as it could have damaged the wall which could have collapsed!

We do have ivy in other places which has grown through fences but keep an eye to make sure it's not causing damage.

Bees tend to be inactive over the winter months and you could plant other winter-flowering shrubs if you are worried about food for them.

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2022/11/where-do-bees-go-in-winter/

X post, I half typed mine then had to do something else.

Dazy

Thanks Foxy, their words thus far have been "the ivy has got to go"

Not really friendly
..

It’s yours! It’s also your garden and your decision.Keep it if you like it and tell them they can trim back any on their side of the garden.We have some ivy on our house and I like it.DP keeps it from climbing too high up.

Dazy

Thank you, I can't see a cheap way forward either. The frustrating thing is , I didn't plant it. My previous owner clearly went mad with the stuff and laurel bushes on the other side.
Neither bother me but my moany neighbours are constantly on at me.

Oh, laurel bushes!!

The ones the builder planted damaged our wall.
So we had them removed and I planted the ivy .........

I hate ivy, very invasive. I am very glad that my neighbours and I are considerate of each other, We all keep the boundaries clear and fencing gives us privacy

I've read all the posts and I can't see anything that says why the neighbours want the ivy removed.

Is the fence that it's growing on theirs?

If not, I'd tell them that they're welcome to cut it back if it's spoiling their garden and I'd keep it cut back on my side.

I agree that ivy is a menace in the wrong place, but it makes a fine hedge and can easily be trimmed back.

It's useful for decorating the house at Christmas, too...

Sorry this doesn't help you Dazy but our neighbour has laurel bushes that have been growing bigger for 20 years. They now poke about six feet over our garden and we're about to cut them all back to the fence. They have really big black berries at this time of the year and the pigeons love them - then they sit in the trees above our drive and poo all over the drive and our car. We have a really light colour resin drive and it looks like someone has splatted it with thick black paint.

A house that backs onto my neighbour has grown her laurel bushes at least 6ft higher than the 6ft fence. It puts my neighbour’s smallish garden into shade, but she’s threatened to call the Police, if her laurels are touched!
My neighbour has also grown ivy up the fence between us, but it’s a small leafed variety and I just hack lengths off, if it gets too straggly on my side.
We grew a mile a minute vine up the back of our house - big mistake as it worked its way under the eaves and worse. We chopped it off, dug out the roots and the foliage we couldn’t reach just died off.

I hope you have a reasonably amicable outcome with your neighbours, but of course, if it’s your ivy, it’s your choice.