The Halls Of Ivy Look Great

Ah, those college or university days when we walked across the main quad, passed the dean’s residence all covered with ivy, the old chem building, likewise green with growth. The feeling of age and permanency; the warmth and ancientness of these great halls of learning. No modern steel designs here, but the brick and mortar of the ages.

Except for one thing: that ivy is ripping the mortar apart, digging into what is holding those bricks together. You don’t see any ivy on the old Roman buildings.

It could well be the ivy is what’s keeping the ancient halls standing. Rip it out at this point and all the bricks will stay in place without cement between them (thus, the Big Bad Wolf could easily huff and puff and blow the place into the middle of the next county), or the next time you slam the front door yuo have to climb over a pile of rubble.

We have a large, strong-looking tree down the street. The tree guy says it will last another bunch of years and I suppose it will; my strong point is radio broadcasting, not the care & feeding of trees. But it has a fine coat of ivy and I know that’s not a good thing for trees to be growing. Or have growing on it.

So we have this ivy stuff. Nice looking, but where do we put it and not have it do damage? Maybe wrap it around a brown-colored pole or a dead tree branch. Lay it through your rock garden. I really don’t know, offhand, because all I’ve seen are houses and trees, both of which end up being eaten by the green stuff.