To kill English ivy in my garden, the grounds people used two sprayings of roundup, it started coming back with in weeks.
When I expanded the garden without permission I dumped a foot of grass clips and
wood chips over the ivy, it started coming back at the same rate as the roundup plot. But grew mostly around the edges where the mulch is thinner. Then I over planted with nasturtiums.
In a third plot I asked the grounds people to weed whip the ivy and then I dumped another foot of just grass clippings and planted naturisms. The ivy is poking through at the edges.
In a final plot I got a pick and sholve and dug out the ivy. It’s a lot of work and the ivy will still come back.
With the mulched areas, I pull the little ivy leaf starts and throw them in the path way as a chop and drop.
Nasturtiums and pumpkin type squash will outgrow ivy and can be treated as a food crop, a cover crop or a flower display. They both will grow well in green mulch.
My
experience with Jerusalem artichokes is like sunflowers. If you give either of them room and light to sprout, they will grow. But once they grow above ivy they
should be fine, until the ivy starts growing up the stalks, then good luck to them.
Jerusalem artichokes don’t grow in green mulch; I’ve found the tubers rots along with the grass clippings.
Biologybill