Cutting ivy back hard

[Caladon]

We have ivy growing along just the top of a high wall. It runs along the top and down the sides slightly.
I cut it so it is "boxed" on the tops and sides.

But it is becoming too thick (about 12 inches of the top of the wall and 12 inches away from the side of the wall going down about 18 inches).

What is the best way of cutting it? I would like to hack it back by at least half its thickness.... but will this kill it? What if i go through the large stems? How rugged is it? Is winter the best time to do it as it is relatively dormant?

Thnks,
Cal

[muff13]

As far as I know it seems pretty impossible to kill ivy however hard you cut it back. We have some growing up the wall of our house - a couple of years ago, this fell away from the wall (not sure what caused it to loose it's grip) All we could do was to cut it back to a height of about 12". Since then it has flourished and rapidly grew back to the origional height. There was a variagated ivy growing on another wall which I tried to remove before we placed an oil tank in front of it. I thought that I had cut all the ivy stems at ground level but had obvoiusly missed one and that ivy is as rampant as ever. I must confess we tend to hack ours back in the summer time once the annual years growth reaches the eaves of the house and I am not sure when the recommended time is, but I suspect that now would be fine if you tried to avoid very frosty weather. Good luck

[Bromsgrove]

Hello! I would agree with the previous answer. As the ivy dies back you should be able to follow the shoots back, and cut again to the desired thickness. I'm sure you can cut at any time of the year. One plea though, birds, especially wrens love to use ivy as a nesting place, so it would be as well to cut before the nesting season begins, and then again once it is over.

[terambulan]

There is a main stem easily accessible at start of plant. Saw out a gap to kill it. Ivy eats into brick-work and devalues properties.

[muff13]

I fear that I have to disagree with terambulan. Ivy does no harm to SOUND brick work. The arial roots just cling to the surface of the brickwork but if the mortar is damaged they might encroach into it. However, it is not a good idea to let ivy grow over a roof as the roots can and will grow between the tiles or slates and can cause damage.

[Jenga]

I don't know what sort of ivy you have but if you have the same type as the one growing up my fence which has berries I suggest you leave it till the berries have finished i.e April. My blackbirds love them.

[Caladon]

Thank you for all the answers...

However, we don't want to kill it, merely cut it back very hard.
The berries have already gone and there are no birds nesting.
The wall itself is the same age as the house, 300 years old, though it was re-pointed 50 years ago and it extremely solid.

We merely want it cut back very hard so it is but a light covering over the stone rather than the heavy thick set it currently is.