What is this ivy on my garage's fascia for?

Question

I see ivy like this on my neighbors' house and my garage. Is this natural-grown? Or is it planted artificially to absorb the moisture?

Answer 1

What's it for?

It's there to destroy your house.

While some consider the "ivy covered building" to be a pretty thing (witness: Ivy League Colleges where many buildings are, literally, covered in ivy), it actually destroys the brick, wood or stone that it's attached to.

If you have wooden window trim, the ivy can send tendrils behind the trim and actually pry it off the house as it grows causing leaks that can damage your house. If you were the one that pulled the ivy down from your vinyl siding, you know just how tenaciously it can get its tendrils behind the siding and how it holds on.

It may have been planted intentionally by someone who liked the look, but it's just as likely to be a volunteer.

Your goal is to kill it. Kill it with fire. Nuke it from orbit if necessary.

Bring a few leaves or a small branch with leaves to your local gardening supply store (a specialist, not a big-box store). They'll be able to identify the species and recommend a particular type/brand of weed killer that'll work well on your ivy. Pay the price premium they'll charge - part of what you're paying for is knowledge, and their knowledge is invaluable. Lop the stems at ground level and pour full-strength weed killer directly onto the cut stems (or apply as they/the packaging directs).

You'll probably also want to spray the killer on the leaves of anything that's still remotely green on your house. The ivy can actually pull some nutrients from the wood your house is made of and the general dirt that gets blown around and collects in the little nooks-and-crannies and it can continue to live and grow even though it's been cut off at the stem.

Once the leaves are brown, go to town pulling the stuff down. Some of it you may have to scrape off - as you can see on your own house, little bits will remain stuck after you pull down the major stems. Be careful around windows and at the edges of siding - you can actually start pulling your house apart if you yank too hard on something that's got a good grip behind.

It took several years of repeating this process including digging up some roots to the best of our ability (it's hard to dig and get them out when it's growing right at your brick foundation) in order to completely eradicate the ivy from our house.

If a lot of neighbors have ivy on their houses, you may get shoots and/or seeds from their places continuing to repopulate at your house. You may be in for a long-term battle. Take heart - it's less effort and less expense than repairing the damage that ivy can do.

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Note: "Kill it with fire" is a bit hyperbolic. You don't actually want to set fire to it - that'll take your house, too. Your insurance won't pay for arson by the homeowner.