Lost in the Ivy

Our house came with an attractive ivy covered wall in back:

But last fall I discovered that the ivy was doing horrible things to bricks, so we decided it would have to go. (The really bad brick damage was only around the garden plot next to the car in that picture, but we didn't want wait until the same thing happened to the house.)

We wanted to kill the climbing vines before trying to remove them from the wall, so a few weeks ago I went out with shears and severed all their links to the ground. They eventually shriveled up substantially, and last weekend we managed to get the walls all clear (happily without too much damage):

It was a pretty substantial job (we filled up six or seven big yard waste bags with the debris), and we're glad to have it done.

( So just how much can you hide in a wall of ivy? )