I feel for you girl... I was overrun by english ivy before. The church's youth group pulled a pickup-truck load up in exchange for a scholarship for their annual retreat, but that would be out of your budget. It kept it down for years, there is some showing now but not enough to panic yet.
I have a container of poison ivy killer that works well. I haven't had to resort to the old method of putting every new sprout in a ziploc baggie with a ball of cotton soaked in the poison ivy killer (time-consuming but effective). Which is the only advice I can think of for you, but it does involve hours in bent position... and we're not getting any younger...

Thanks for the sympathy, Maryo. I will try the poison ivy killer for the English Ivy but I seem to remember it is a bit expensive and not very easy to use. Maybe the drought will help. I haven't been watering in back and the Ivy is finally starting to get yellow. I didn't have this much trouble when we lived in the woods.

Even if the other invasives remain, the Poison Ivy has got to go. DH is terribly allergic. Thank goodness I seem to be immune. I'm just afraid that even if I do succeed, the yard will be a waste land. What the weeds don't smother the chemicals and drought will do in.

I have been considering writing a brief note for the paper about this. The topic would be consideration for your neighbors when planing your own landscape. Do you think that is a good idea? I worry about being a good neighbor and try not to cause problems for others despite the tree that fell recently. It seems a bit hypocritical of me to complain but this is really a devastating problem.

Remember how lovely and exotic it looked climbing the college walls? We are suffering an invasion from our neighbors as well, and the stuff goes right for one of my streams and its surroundings. I was advised to cut it at the property line by any means--scissors, weed whacker, whatever, and then apply the plant killer over the exposed ends. It has been effective enough, calls a truce til next year when you can attack it again while it is still not far advanced.

I don't know about the letter to the editor. It might make you feel better; whether it will reach those who don't know better or don't care is not knowable. Post a copy here for us!!

I think a letter to the editor will be fine, it's a civic subject, as long as you don't make the neighbors identifiable :). For all you know, somebody might make a better decision because of it. Wouldn't be your neighbors though...
The drought is a really sad thing. So many farms and gardens and woods and prairies. We had no rain here for four or five weeks last year. Some of the grass is still spotty one wet spring and early summer later.

Hey, Mike. I remember my mother's frustration as the Ivy climbed the back of our three story brick house. It literally ate holes in the bricks. I don't know who planted it or how it was eventually killed (I was married and living out west) but the damage was not pretty. The dead vines had to be rubbed off with a wire brush.

Maryo, I really don't want to point anyone out. It is partly frustration and partly a holdover from Master Gardeners. I feel compelled to pass on information. I remember being upset a few years ago when the local nurseries were selling Virginia Creeper and ivies as ground cover. My worst fears are realized.

Over the years I have seen only one place where it is under control and there it is isolated and brutally cut by a homeowner who must be obsessive-compulsive. He mows and trims and sprays the edges of the planting beds weekly with a chemical edger and checks the yard carefully every day. I doubt the average home owner has the devotion to perfection I see there. It is fascinating to watch the results. I commend him for his devotion but I would miss flowers. He has only shrubs, grass and a tree in an island of the ivy but they are perfect.

The drought and heat wave is really doing a number on this state. The cost will be in the mega-millions just in crop loss. Some places are reporting water usage is up by 110% and they are curtailing watering yards. The city opened "cooling stations", auditoriums and halls where people who were stressed by the heat could get some relief but only a handful of people showed up. That is strange.

we had cooling stations open in NH today, but mostly people that aren't at work in air-conditioned buildings go to the mall...
We burned our artesian pump out last year (daughter left it on for 8 hours, topping up the pond), so we're not going to try and keep the yard alive this year if we get drought conditions here. So far good rain about once a week though.

The only plants that over-run me are the ones I stupidly plant and, 2 years later, wish I hadn't!!!

Good luck. I don't have any suggestions. My solution is pulling by hand but I don't have as much of a problem as you seem to be having.

Wait.. I do have an idea. What about black plastic or an old rug? I have killed grass by mistake that way.

Anne

The black plastic might be a last resort tactic but I suppose it would have to be a project before the fall. Maybe the extra heat and drought will help.

I don't have access to carpet. I wouldn't be surprised to see it come through all but the thickest of carpet. The Virginia Creeper would just go underground until it reached the edge.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try it in a 20x20 area before I try to cover it all. It covers a huge area.