[willowman]

No, not the name of an ex-girlfriend.

The hedges and walls around my (large) garden are being covered by ivy. It seems as fast as I pull it off one section then it grows somewhere else. It's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge.
It is growing through hedges and spreading along the ground looking for somewhere else to infest.
I try pulling off all I can get to, but the following year it's back again.
I don't like killing off plants but this really is a pest, and trying to keep on top of it is taking up precious time that I could better spend cultivating my veggies.
Is there any way of stopping this annual attack on my garden once and for all?

[Spana]

Cut through the stems at the base, clear away whats on the walls and start again with the new growth.  Cant think of anything else other than taking it all out.
 Why not do half cut at the base and clear out the rest.  You'd only have half the problem then

Sorry cant help much, i like ivy but it does make work when it really gets going.

 Lot of things live in it or on it so it does have its good points

[mumofstig]

trouble is one of the things that like to live in it are HUGE snails 

[Spana]

trouble is one of the things that like to live in it are HUGE snails 

But excellent for thrushes who need all the help they can get

[Yorkie]

In my new house (back garden, not literally in the house ... ) I have a self-supporting ivy plant (i.e. doesn't climb up anything) which must be decades old and is level with my first floor windows. 

There are pigeons nesting in it at the moment but come late summer it's coming down (or at least to a reasonable height!)