When I first shared about the back wall of our house, I thought aloud about allowing ivy to grow up in certain areas and just keep it trimmed so it didn’t take over.  However, after pulling it from all over the yard and seeing it try to climb into windows (successfully in the case of a basement window that was left open), I decided against it.  I do still love the look of ivy growing (thoughtneatly trimmed) on a building, but I realized it’s not as easy to control the growth as I imagined and the damage and discoloration it leaves behind on the brick is unsightly and I don’t want to accumulate more.  So, English ivy has become another nemesis along with Bishop’s weed/goutweed and I’ve been scraping it off the house, cutting it off the fence (which we’re replacing this week), and pulling it out of the yard.