Have you ever had vines that get started and just can’t stop? They go places you don’t want them to be and claim things you want left alone. Every summer, the vines in my yard get a bit bolder. Every year I think about what to do about it…. I could rip them up and keep the front yard looking nice or I could let them go. Some of the vines I jump on a bit faster than others.
The people who lived here before me planted a bunch of English Ivy as a ground cover and they put in a small trellis to encourage it to grow up onto the house. With small amounts of it, I’m pretty sure it bothers me much more than it does anyone else. I’m not a real fan of vines on the house so I get out there now and then and trim it back and try to pull it off. It takes a lot of time and effort to deal with it too! I would love to get rid of it once and for all but I haven’t figured out what I’d put in its place.
There are vines in the backyard were so well established in one corner that I asked someone helping with the yard to take out a tree. I was shocked when he pointed out that it was honeysuckle, not a tree honeysuckle had tried to take over! Needless to say the battle there rages on. And I see more of honeysuckle trying to come through the fence every time I go out there.
But there are some vines that grow up on bushes in my front yard that although they look really ragged I like to leave them alone. I can’t help but wonder if the neighbors notice… if folks think I should be doing something to get rid of them. I wonder when they will be bad enough to take a bit of a crack at them.
This fall as I worked on the English Ivy a bit, one of my neighbors mentioned how they put up with milkweed for the monarchs and suddenly I breathed more comfortably. Seemed they had an ugly couple of bushes I hadn’t noticed. But we both had seen a few more butterflies this year. Hopefully next year there will be a few more and hopefully I will be able to get photos! Because this year every time I saw monarchs, they would leave by the time I could find my camera.
Do you have ugly vines that attract beautiful insects? If not, are you willing to plant some?
