Letter to the Garden - November 2021

Dear Garden,

It's a lovely sunny day as I write this, a little breezy but it is a day to stand outside, fill my lungs with fresh air and just enjoy the moment.

I do have something to talk to you about and it is ivy.  Now I know you are going to tell me that it is good for wildlife to have some ivy and if I only had 'some' ivy I would not be worrying so much about it.  Dear garden, I have a veritable sea of ivy, an ocean of it.  It blankets, smothers and chokes and clambers and.... and.... well it stares malevolently at me.  It does, it really does.  I feel overwhelmed by it at the moment and at a loss what to do.

Digging it up is just impossible, there is too much of it.  Killing it with chemicals is very very tempting but I worry about that.  I have used weedkillers in the past but this needs really strong stuff and I worry about the garden's wildlife and my cats.

The ivy has eaten the small shed and covered some trees.  It has pretty much devoured the large shed as well apart from the parts of it that are only propped up by brambles.  I have to keep removing ivy from the outside and inside of the greenhouse.  It is invading more and more, day by day, inch by inch by mile.  This is not a new problem and I have tried to tackle it in the past.  In 2013 I made a determined effort to untangle the rowan tree in front of the kitchen window.  I had some success at the time but all that work has been reclaimed by the ivy.

I am feeling trapped by ivy, ensnared and shackled; hidden and cloaked and submerged.

Dear garden, I need a plan.  I need to start taking action and reclaim this part of the garden.  This will be done. 

Your loving gardener.

Stay safe and be kind.

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