ivy

  dear sir

                   i have a privit hedge with ivy in it

                how do i get rid of the ivy beside pulling it out

            any surgeston wecome

             yours john hooley at jthooley@btinternet.com

Unfortunatly your only way of removing the ivy is to thread it back to the main root and try to fork it out. Privet is not keen on root disturbance so, it may be easier to cut it off at ground-level and apply a weedkiller like Root-Out.

You have not said waht sort of Ivy (Hedera) is in the hedge. If it is common Ivy (Hedera helix) you can just prune it when you cut the hedge and it will live quite happily amongst the privet. Watch out for a black soot on the Ivy leaves though as this will be a sign of Scale insects.