keeping ivy small?

[kentishgal]

I have a teeny garden but would quite like to create a wildlife corner anyway! I was thinking of using a small section of partially shaded patio with a cut out bed. I have planted a blackberry and fern already and will be making a mini pond (washing up bowl!) but would like something to provide ground cover and somewhere for wildlife to hide.
Ivy would be great but my only other experience is watching it run rampant and create tree trunk type stems which over take everything....
If you keep ivy pruned does the central stem stay small too or should I look at using something else???

[Two_Sheds]

You need to buy a small, slow growing ivy


'Jubilee,' 'Buttercup,' 'Spetchley,' 'Goldheart', 'Golden Starlight,' 'Golden Curl,' 'Glacier,' 'Willie,' 'Itsy Bitsy,' 'Ingrid', 'Walthamensis' & many suchlike are safely used [ie, non-invasive] cultivars.

The American Ivy Society's "non-invasive Ivy of the Year" choices : 'Lady Francis,' 'Teardrop' & 'Golden Ingot.'

Paghat's Garden: Hedera helix

[Maccabee]

Confine it using a container? Although if it's trailing along the ground won't it propagate itself anyway?

[elleme]

If you want it only for ground cover and not to climb, you could consider something like bugle (if it's not too dry soil) or lamium, both of which the bees should like and critters can hide among. Sweet woodruff is also pretty at this time of year though I've never seen bees visiting it. All are rampant as ground covers but not in a tree trunk stem kind of way.

[GardenFaery]

or keep it in pots that you can move around?... that's what I do and wildlife loves pots too?

[Vince G]

I love wildlife. We have a garden that measures a mere 40ft × 14ft and we have a resident frog that (we presume) hibernates (somewhere!) and comes back every year and patrols for nasties. Constantly makes us jump when it leaps, but it's brilliant to have in a suburban garden like ours - we see it most days. There is an enormous ivy over next door's garage which often encroaches into our garden and has to be hacked back, but this year it is home to nesting blackbirds, wrens and (for the first time) blackcaps, and whatever berries don't get eaten by the woodpigeons, flower and attract bees. I would never plant ivy, it's a horrible plant for a small garden, but it's great for wildlife and I suppose it's just about OK so long as you keep it well in check.

[rinabean]

Keep picking up the pot if you put it in a pot. The roots will break through and cling even to concrete. Picking up the pot a few times a month will break any roots that are trying to anchor down. It's fairly easy to rip up the trailing parts from where you don't want it as long as you do it a few times a year. Just don't let it turn into a tree It shouldn't get too thick a stem if you leave it in a pot and keep breaking the roots at the bottom. If it does, it's easy to empty the pot and start another plant from a cutting.