Hello Dougens,
To get rid of the excessive Ivy you should probably dig the roots out and place something like a border (Roof toppig?) between it and the beds: it wil spread by time, not very fast though. My experience is it forms a sort of mattress of roots like Solidago or Vinca Minor: you rip away the top part, but below there are more roots.
If you mean te grow veg in the beds I would definitely avoid weed killers also because Ivy is controllable.
I have no experience with pruning Wisteria It normally grows like weeds. Maybe good to look at your soil beside pruning?
Hello Toosje
Many thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately there isn't enough space to place something in between the ivy and the beds as the beds are so small ( see images ivy bed 2 - the proposed veg bed with a hedge where the ivy seems to be creeping through at the bottom where the chicken wire is - which I plan to remove - see image ivy bed 3)
If you see image ivy end (the bed is on the left of the picture) there is no space to place a border plant to stop the spreading as far as I can see - I would like to place a shed there for tools etc if I'm honest as well.
Regarding weedkillers I've read that glyphosate weedkillers are ok to use for clearing weeds and ivy as they do not go down to the roots and remain on the surface. Therefore they will not harm the vegetable plot through the soil as it dissipates? I have read conflicting theories to this though.
I'm going to check again whether the ivy in the vegetable bed is coming through from below the neighbours hedge (although is its very difficult to see where it's source is (!)) and rip it all up from the soil and see where that takes me. It is not an easy task however and like you say I will need to remove all of the roots, which seem to have formed a thick blanket in the beds!
Does anyone have any suggestions of climbing plants that would fill in the gaps in the ivy at the end of the garden but not be quite to invasive and spread quite so much? Something flowering would be desirable.
Also any help with the maintenance and pruning of the wisteria greatly appreciated.
Thanks