I hate ivy

I thought I'd share with you how much I hate ivy. It's nothing more than kudzu with a good publicity agent. It grows over anything, destroys siding on your house, refuses to die, even when sprayed by all those chemicals I never admit to using in my yard, and it refuses to be pulled it without a herculean effort!

Did I say I hate it? I've been trying on and off for 10 years to rid my yard of ivy. Anyone who plants ivy on purpose should be shot. No trial. I have almost given myself heat exhaustion and who-knows-what-else today trying to pull up the ivy along my north wall.....again. It had grown six or seven feet under the siding of the house. It is separating the siding from the outer wall, and it has invaded the crawl space through the vents.....10 or 12 feet into the crawl space. Why? I don't know. It's dark in there. Ivy is stupid and it just grows. It doesn't know how to do anything else. Just grow. Up walls, under walls, through walls, into crawl spaces, over fences, over other plants, over any toy or gardening tool left for more than 10 minutes. I worried about the children when they were small. My kids have never been very active, and I wondered if they staying in one place too long if I would ever find them again.

I wish I had taken pictures of it before and after. Only I'm not to the "after" stage yet. I'm in the almost after stage, which is where I've been for years. I hate ivy.