ivy to plant on garage wall

berarde

I'm not too keen on ivy as we have stone walls and the ivy got well into the walls and became quite a nuisance particularly as the stone walls are attractive. In the end my neighbour and I got rid of it.

 I would like some ivy on my garage brick wall, but am not so keen as it got rather established in the stone  walls. Nevertheless it is positive for wildlife and makes an effective cover, but I would need to keep it to about 6/7 feet to avoid it pushing under the eaves of the roof. Would I be able to cut it back hard so as to keep it under control?

At least the virus is giving me time to review the garden and improve the parts that I never felt to be quite right. 
Good health to all

madpenguin

I had an ivy growing on my brick garage wall.
It took ages to establish and then romped away and over the roof.
Had to cut it at least 3 times a year to keep it under control and produced so much debris and cuttings that had to be disposed of.
Finally got rid of it last year!!
Good for wildlife......snails,slugs,woodlice,spiders.........

josusa47

There are dozens of varieties of ivy so you can pick a pretty one.  Or several pretty ones.  There's a nursery called Fibrex that specialises in ivy, I have found them very good to deal with.  Some varieties, especially the variegated ones, have the advantage of being less vigorous than the wild type.  My favourites are Yellow Ripple, Lalla Rookh, and Oro di Boscario (or something like that) which is better known as Goldheart.

KeenOnGreen

Our favourite is Gold Heart too.  It has very small leaves, lovely colouration, but it is quite vigorous once established.  Have you considered something else (depending on sun/soil, etc), such as star Jasmine, a climbing Hydrangea, or an evergreen Clematis?

Fairygirl

I had one called Sulphur Heart which was quite well behaved - quite similar to the Goldheart one which @josusa47 mentions. 
I have a creamy variegated one which I can't remember the name of, and it's well behaved too. It's really only the standard types which are more unruly - hibernica and helix. 

Many people dislike ivy intensely, but I have all sorts of wildlife using it. Properly managed, it can be very useful.
The best stage is when it become arboreal, but nevertheless, it can be home to lots of insects, and my mouse family live in the bog standard stuff I have   

berarde

I preferred ivy  as I have bought a gothic garden mirror and ivy is the go for here, so thank you I'll check out the varieties on fibrex. My little project is turning into more of a folly, will post pics when done!