Cut the trunk or trunks just above where they come out of the ground. I could take months for the top growth to die back but it will. Treat the stumps with SBK, drill holes in them and pour in, then cover with something like a plant pot saucer with a stone or brick on top. Eventually you will be able to remove all the top growth from the ivy as it dies back.

I wish you can send me a few cuttings. I'm trying to cover an ugly fence with Ivy.

If its up a tree cut it off at the base as MG says. Leave it on the tree or fence to die off as it pullls of really easily once its dead. If you have a fireplace you can use the thicker peiece as firelighters once they are really dry.

If its growing the ground pull it out and then dig. You might get weedkiller to stick to the leaves if you add some detergent or soap but its not easy.

Would happily send you Bathgate if it were legal but it isn't.

Thanks Mg. Another trip to the garden center.

What kind of fence do you want to cover Bathgate. We agreed to share the cost of a new fence between us and a neighbour if she would remove the ivy plant on her side which destroyed the previous fence. The stems pushed through between the slats when they were small but as they grew and thickened it burst the fence apart. I'm very annoyed because it is growing as rampantly as ever. You can train something like pyracantha up in front of the fence without the resulting destruction.

Though I love ivy and grow it, I feel your pain, Scotsgran. Our neighbour has never done a scap of gardening, and has allowed ivy and brambles to climb over, under and through our fence panels, causing damage (and this is our fence, on our boundary). For the sake of neighbourly relations, we've cleared all the growth from our side of the fence, and replaced panels and posts when necessary, and all without a word of complaint over many years. He recently employed someone to completely clear his garden, and so actually saw the fence for the first time ever - and had the flipping nerve to come round and complain, and tell us it needed replacing (because there was 'green stuff' growing all over it on his side, and there were 'flappy bits', whatever that meant...!). Needless to say, we were not impressed, not least because the reason for clearing the garden was so that he could build a monstrous deck (but that's another story...!).

Well, rosierose, you can comfort yourself with the thought that eventually, you'll be laughing quietly at him - if he has that deck built, but has failed to deal properly with the ivy roots, it will grow beneath his deck and force its way out, eventually destroying the deck... which I would consider to be 'just desserts'...

The deck is already built (we came home to find it there after a few days' break in May), as is the even more monstrous 25 feet long featherboard fence he erected on top of it and along our boundary the following week. We live in adjoining terraced houses, and because our back gardens slope down and away from the houses, the structure on our boundary is a whopping 10 feet 6 inches high at its highest point (4 feet of deck, and 6 feet 6 inches of fence), and 8 feet high at its lowest.

Hopefully, we'll be laughing long before the ivy gets a grip, as we (and a few others) reported it to Planning after failing to have any meaningful dialogue with the neighbour. He's since put in a retrospective planning application, which has been strongly objected to, and Planning's decision is imminent...

IT's an ugly chain link fence with wooden slats inserted. I thought covered with English Ivy or honeysuckle would look much better.

Honeysuckle drops its leaves in winter, so won't look good then, Bathgate....

I wish you luck Rosie. I find planners decisions these days unfathonable. Lets hope it blows down in the first gale. Bathgate how high is the chain link fence and are the fence slats connected to anything else. If not I think the whole lot might come down in a gale.

Rosie I feel for you - well done for not getting nasty with him, it must have taken a lot fo self control. Hope oit turns out as you would wish...
Bathgate had you thought of an evergreen clematis or two?

No I haven't thought of clematis, but I'm glad you did. I'm going to a mega garden center this weekend and will add that to my list.