Ivy! – A pretty green creeper found growing anywhere and everywhere that it can.  Ivy looks lovely on old brick buildings, along northeastern river banks, and climbing up the sides of English cottages.  Ivy loves to grow in cool damp climates like England and New England….and along the Oregon coast.

Shell’s Cottage must be ivy heaven.  There was ivy growing all around the house, the carriage house, and around the trees.  There was ivy growing over the fences, under the house and actually through the wall under one of the living room window sills.  There was ivy creeping up under the cedar shingles and halfway up the giant Sitka spruce tree in the yard.

 Even the pale yellow wallpaper in the upstairs bedroom and bathroom has ivy leaves and vines crawling all over it!

Now I know that some people love ivy and I think it is as nice looking as the next person but geez!  …. The ivy had to go before it took over the entire place!  Day one of cottage ownership involved “pulling ivy”.  The battle was on!  Off of the fence and the side of the house it came. More ivy came off of the rest of the main house last October.

 Then, just a few weeks ago, I couldn’t stand it any longer! I spent several days running outside with the big red loppers between rain and hail squalls and snipped and hacked away at the ivy that was trying to kill the Sitka.

Finally, the sun came out, and our awesome yard guy showed up with his big ladder and pulled down the rest. Yay!

Next up –  pulling the ivy off of the back of the carriage house, from around the deck, and off of the back fence!

Watch out Mr. Ivy – I’m coming for you!

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