A couple of months back, my son's GF admired the ivy covering the walls of my brick house.
This photo was taken in July, when it was at the height of green foliage. A few years back, I had stripped it all off so the workmen could put up new gutters, and paint the easements and window frames as well as the siding.
A couple of weekends ago, we had a strong wind go through (remember the fence repairs a week or so ago?) Since then, it's just the bare vines covering those walls.
Truth to be known, there is a function to this ivy. In summer, all leafy, it keeps the sun from baking the bricks quite so hot. In the winter, leafless, it lets the sun do that, so that overnight, when it's cold, the warmed bricks radiate their heat into the house. Saves me heating/cooling dollars.
In my head I see sticky, acetic tendrils etching away at the mortar between the bricks and yanking your gutters down!
ReplyDeleteLiving within 10 miles of the "ivy covered halls" of Princeton U, I've seen the ivy trimmed on more than one occasion. However, a study done at another ivy covered institution, Oxford, found more benefits than detractors.
Keep your ivy but keep it neat!
Cost/benefit... you get it!
DeleteReminiscent of an English cottage.
ReplyDeleteExactly... this was already the case when I bought the place 22 years back, and of course I have trimmed it back every so often.
DeleteDouble duty!
ReplyDelete😁 Indeed!
DeleteIt's beautiful and works for your house.
ReplyDelete😁 Thanks!
DeleteI just love ivy covering a home. It looks so cooling in the hot summer.
ReplyDeleteSleeping beauty's forest lives!
DeleteWhat an awesome contribution from the Ivy. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHuh . . . so ivy on brick DOES serve a purpose. Our house in IL before we moved here to WI had ivy. I took some of it for my wedding bouquet back 33 yrs. ago. Still have a sprig of it in a pot.
ReplyDeleteAh have a tremendous Tuesday!
hugs
barb
1crazydog
That's interesting about the benefits of the ivy ... I just figured it looked pretty but maybe could do some damage. We don't have a lot of ivy that grows here on the desert, but grapevines do, and they grow up and grab onto things. It grows clear up the wall at one of the local park facilities.
ReplyDelete