Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Remove An Overgrown Vine From A Tree

(Punny alternate post title: Heard It Through The Giant Non-Grape Vine)

Ok, so remember the ol’ crazyvine that was putting the squeeze on an oak tree in our backyard that we mentioned last fall? It’s a scene straight outta Jumanji.

Vine Removal2

About half a year ago we cut the base of the vine…

2 Cutting Root0

… in an attempt to kill it and rescue our oak tree from its death grip.

2 Cutting Root3

And then it just sat there, a la Rose in Titanic. It never let go. And things took a turn for the ugly when the leaves and branches got all dry and dead.

Vine Removal4

So after 6 months of waiting for it to give up the ghost and magically fall from the tree, we decided that we’d need to take matters into our own hands… with the help of some pruning shears. Basically our method was to clip each dead branch off right at the base where it met the vine since we couldn’t wrestle the vine itself from the tree (it was literally as firm as cement on there, and we didn’t want to damage the oak).

Vine Removal5

Miraculously we could reach almost every last branch thanks to a ladder and a long handled branch cutter for those upper portions.

Vine Removal6

Here’s a before shot for ya from last year:

Vine Removal3

And an after that I just snapped this morning:

Vine After2

It’s nice to no longer have what appears to be a tree that’s eating the house.

One more before:

Vine Removal1

And an after from that angle now:

Vine After1

I love that there’s not a giant vine weighting down the oak anymore, and the new openness of the upper patio is awesome. It used to feel pretty closed in – and so many berries and pointy leaves (both of which the vine produced en mass) used to fall all over the table and chairs. It’s nice to be free of that dusting o’ junk.

So that’s how you ignore a vine for a few years, then attack the base, then wait for it to surrender and fall to the ground by some vine-miracle, and then make things happen with some shears and a ladder. Any pruning or yard stuff going on in your neck of the woods?

Comments

  3. Marie says

    Your oak tree thanks you! There is a lot of yard clean-up and pruning and raking going on here. It is finally Spring in Michigan. ( for a few days anyway until the temps plummet this weekend!)

    Reply

    • Jen. says

      Yeah! I’m dying to get out and do some cleanup, but we’ve got more flooding predicted. Love you, Michigan, but enough for a bit, ok?

    • Sarah says

      I live in Michigan too, and we spent all day Sunday wrestling a vine from our front porch! It was cracking the concrete and everything! Took me and my husband 4 hours to pull out! And now they’re calling for snow again next week. Stinkin Michigan! :)

    • Nicole says

      Just had to pipe in here so everyone can feel sorry for me…I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and they are calling for double digits in inches of snow we are supposed to get tomorrow….who can get me a rental in Florida?! ;)

    • alisha says

      I’m in MI, too, and there is flooding going on EVERYWHERE! Friends have posted countless pictures of flooded roadways, floating cars, lakes forming in their backyards (and basements) and the mayor of Grand Rapids even asked people to conserve water by “showering with a buddy” haha!!

      I’m sooo glad we laid french drain tiles in our notoriously soggy backyard 2 autumns ago–we are draining quite nicely =]

      In regards to the post–it seems like that would be much healthier for the tree, but I personally would sooo miss the privacy the vine provided! We trimmed an overgrown shrub near our deck last year and I STILL mourn the loss of privacy from our neighbor’s house. But I bet the oak is happier!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, that house you see in the very very far distance is actually on the other side of a street that’s further over than ours (not even our street, maybe 300+ feet away) – so I’m pretty sure if he came out naked and did a dance in his front yard I couldn’t see him – not that I’d encourage that… hah!

      xo
      s

  4. Katie says

    Looks great! I’m also trying to tackle pruning some trees in my backyard that are creeping over from the neighbor. Unfortunately the branches are too high up for me to reach with my ladder. Was wondering about the tool you used and how hard it was. I’ve heard some of the pruners on poles can be difficult. Someone even suggested a chainsaw on a pole (I guess they sell it, not just a Jerry-rigged version).
    Suggestions?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We love our branch clipper. It basically has a long arm and you pull a string and it clips the branch. It’s John’s dad’s (probably 10+ years old) since he gave it to us after moving to a place without a yard that they have to maintain. So sorry I don’t have brand info (doesn’t have a logo anywhere).

      xo
      s

    • Debbie says

      My Mom loves what she calls her chain saw on a pole for high up branch trimming (she’s only 5’1″). It’s made by Black and Decker (not super expensive). You charge the battery and then attach it to the tool to power it. So not as scary as a real chain saw but very similar to John’s tool with alittle more power. We use it alot for medium sized limb trimming.

    • Ambi says

      Sooo I actually work for Black & Decker and yes we make pole pruners that are not top heavy (aka your arms won’t fall off) and that actually work. If your branches are more than 6-8″ you’ll have to get a full-on chainsaw but anything less than that you can use a pole pruner for. Remington sells a chainsaw (corded) on a pole but it can be top heavy which is not ideal and Worx makes the jawsaw (corded) but again its top heavy and can run you about $150. Go to your local Lowes or Home Depot and ask about these. I believe Ryobi & B&D are the only ones that make cordless pole pruners aside from some random brands.

  5. ErinY says

    Short and to the point, Petersiks! haha Big transformation, few words, but still thorough, nice work on your goals! lol

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That was a hand me down from John’s dad since they moved to a place with a maintenance free yard (I don’t think it says anything on it, but it might be 10+ years old).

      xo
      s

    • SunshineGal85 says

      Look for a pole pruner that has both a pruning saw and string-pull lopper blades on it so you can cut both large and small branches with the same tool. The 2-in-1 tool costs more than purchasing one that only performs one function, but costs considerably less than purchase two separate, single-function pole pruners. My only problem with a pole saw is it’s difficult to put force on the blade while you hold the base of a log pole, so it takes much longer to cut through a branch. Bonus tip: if you have fruit trees, you can purchase a basket or mesh bag attachment so when you clip the fruit it falls into the basket or bag rather than falling all the way to the ground with heavy bruising.

  8. alisa says

    We just got our trees trimmed (we have about 30 trees the size of the one you tackled!) after the advice of a realtor and I cannot believe the difference pruned trees make! We had a vine on one of ours too that we had removed and the tree looks so much happier and prouder without the vine-induced suffocation. We had good timing too- a huge storm just blew through last night and now the cleanup is minimal compared to what we used to deal with after a storm. Did the branches cause any damage to your railing when they were that close?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      They definitely encouraged lots of gunk to build up on the railing (and bird do and all that other gross stuff that happens in thick trees) so we did some hose spraying and actually want to rent a power washer to finish the job.

      xo
      s

  9. Janelle @ Two Cups of Happy says

    I thought it looked pretty before and gave you some extra privacy! That said, I can totally understand why you would want to cut it. Berries & leaves everywhere can be quite a nuisance to a deck. Haha. Love the jumanji reference!

    Reply

  10. Emma (Broke Ass Home) says

    Holy Crap that made a huge difference! I honestly didn’t even realize that that was what the back of the house looked like. You guys really do have an awesome piece of land. And I’m jealous of your grass. We’re trying to figure out how to do the whole…yard thing with three dogs. Joys of home ownership. Amirite? ;)

    Reply

  11. Meaghan says

    Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that I think your “like a post” section has a link to external sites… Spammy type sites.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks for the tip Meaghan! That’s actually the way that plug-in has always worked (in order to serve 4 of our posts it shares 1 external one) but it should be home related. The one it’s showing me right now is about bedroom organization. Is that the one you see too? I wonder if they’re targeted like google (meaning other people might see different ones).

      xo
      s

    • Dayna says

      Mine says “the food that fights three”…looks health related and I don’t think its google related. Doesn’t bother me, but just thought you might want to know!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Weird! So I guess they serve different ads to different people (could be location based or something). Who knew?! I always thought you guys saw what we saw!

      xo
      s

    • Alissa says

      I’ve got “Inappropriate Kid Drawings” with a thumbnail of smiling child with “I love Satan” written next to a drawing of Santa. :) How do they come up with these?

    • Lindsay says

      Mine is about “Minimizing the Stress of Euthanasia”… I don’t think it is a targeted thing!

    • Megan says

      Haha- this thread cracked me up, and made me look too. Mine is about ‘top 10 horrible toddler behaviors’! I am scared to click that link and see how many my twins have :)

    • Nicole says

      Mines about how to eat a banana while standing on one foot with your eyes closed.

      jk. i didnt even click on it. ;)

    • Heather Flint says

      Usually mine are house related. However, today mine is “Five Ways the Chinese Treat Colitis”. Hahahaha, I can’t quit laughing. I actually asked my fiance if hes been having “problems”, to see if it was something he had googled. LOL!!!

    • alisha says

      Mine is “The ultimate herb for your heart’s health: PART 3” don’t know what happened to the first two parts….and it’s Hawthorn, in case you we’re curious ;)

    • erin says

      Agreed. I am new on the street and this is my first spring/summer here. I will be finding a way to address the poison ivy that runs rampant through bushes in the neighbors yard that joins with mine that I saw when viewing the house. Or… just treat it anyway, no one likes poison ivy.

  14. Susan says

    What type of vine was that? We had one similar on a pine tree and could never figure out what it was. Removing it sure made a difference. Good job!

    Reply

  15. heather says

    There will be lots of that going on at our house. My husband just bought a new chainsaw haha. I think that now makes two chainsaws and a couple backup/part saws. #thatshowmainersroll

    Reply

  16. Kate : This Wandering Life says

    I am thoroughly impressed at how much of a nuisance a vine can be! I sympathize with your hard work, but don’t have any yard to actually “do” here… Although I definitely miss it. Paris is just starting to get leaves everywhere though- we are so excited!!!

    Reply

  18. Tiffany says

    We have a tree in the front yard that we were really worried about last year. I had an Arborist come out and check on it and the guy told me it was toast. But I didn’t agree with him one bit. Wouldn’t you know, it has BURST forth with all sorts of life and cheeriness this year. It has a section in the middle that is definitely dead, but with some pruning and TLC I think it’ll be ok! Where do you get those long branch cutters anyhow??

    P.S. We’re trying to decide…DIY the pruning or hire someone??…decisions, decisions….

    Reply

  19. Maria says

    We’ve had a couple of quotes from Arborists as we have about 7 huge Bay tress leaning towards our house. The bad news is the quotes (if we removed them all) are around $25,000. The good news is we remove those that concern us the most we’ll have more sunlight and a better view of San Francisco Bay. Unfortunately, it’s not something we can do ourselves, ya gotta know when to leave it to the professionals. Can you tree me, Sherry & John ;-)

    Reply

  22. Meredith says

    For some reason, I am beyond grossed out by the two vines crawling up the base of the tree. It reminds me of leeches, I guess? I don’t know, but it makes me shudder. I’m fine with snakes, rodents, etc. but weird “growths” really get me!

    Reply

  23. Alicia says

    We need to do this exact thing! We cut a big chunk of the vine and have been waiting for it to miraculously come off the tree, with no luck. Looks like we need to bust out the shears and cut off those limbs!

    Reply

  27. Crystal @ 29 Rue House says

    Wow that really cleaned things up a bunch!!

    Is that your back deck/patio that you added the paver patio too? I noticed the brick trim on the first level from stepping out from your sunroom. I think I always thought that was a wood deck but is it a raised concrete or other stone with wood steps? Hoping to add a deck/patio in our backyard so extra curious.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, it’s a two tier patio now that we added the paver one down below. So the upper deck has always been here and has wooden steps but a composite top (looks like a bunch of pebbles pushed into concrete).

      xo
      s

  28. Maria says

    Hey Sherry , I don’t want to hijack your comment thread so please don’t approve this comment but I thought it would be the quickest way to let you know that there’s a relatively risky ad popping up in the top right ad spot of your site. It’s for Me Undies. I’d want to know if it was my site ;)

    Maria

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That dang ad! Thanks for the tip Maria. We’ve requested that it be blocked three times in the past three days, so we have no idea how the heck it’s still coming through. Off to put in another query!

      xo
      s

  29. April says

    Looks so much better. We actually had to cut down a water maple tree in our front yard last weekend. My hubby tried to just prune it but it had been hit by lightening, we discovered, and was going to die eventually anyways. The bark had started falling off. So it had to come down but we are going to miss the shade it provided this summer!

    Reply

  30. Jill in Colorado says

    Hi, I was wondering about what kind of vine it was too. I would love to be out gardening and pruning, but here in Denver we had just less than a foot of snow the last few days. Uggghhhh.

    Reply

  31. John says

    I’ve saved a few neighbor’s trees from death by cutting ivy vines and I’ll get out the old grass and weed killer if I see any ivy springing up. Glad the city and Henrico have remove the ivy days from local parks.

    Reply

  32. Kara says

    This is one of the most satisfying before and after posts I’ve ever seen. Invasive plant life FREAKS ME OUT.

    Reply

  33. Annie R says

    Love the new look! Our neighbors just cut down 3 huge maple trees and I keep having to do a double take because I can see new things I’ve never been able to before. Like, “hey- honey- did you know the other neighbors had a garage in the back of their house??” Type stuff lol

    Reply

  34. Alissa says

    Previous owners of our house were an elderly couple (seriously in their mid 90’s!) who let their landscaping completely turn into a jungle. English Ivy EVERYWHERE (up tress,intertwined throughout the chain-link fence) it’s been a nightmare to dig up! We used your tips to cut the base of the vines last fall and are now going through the process of pulling all of the dead vines off of the trees and untangling the mess from the fence! Oh and after digging up a good chuck of the ivy from the yard we found what appears to have once been a nice little stone patio! It’s amazing what ivy and vines cover up! Lord only knows what we’ll find when we finish digging up the 5′ deep or so of dead “weed” trees and various other plant life…

    Reply

  36. Peggy McKee says

    You might want to finish the job by applying systemic weed/brush killer to cut end–you should make a fresh cut before applying. Roundup is pretty safe–some people use salt, etc. I’ve no idea if alternative methods work.

    Reply

  37. Rachel R. says

    Just be sure to wash your hands with dish soap! When those vines are furry-like, they’re often large poison ivy vines instead of grape vines.

    Looks great! You guys are good at everything. :-)

    Reply

  41. Mary@TwoHappyLambs says

    Looks great! We have been in a tug of war with the yard- it’s hard to do the cutting back we need to do without stripping the place bare! We have to plant and wait first so that it doesn’t look empty as a concrete box. Such a difficult balance!

    Reply

  43. Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says

    Well hello house! Well done! It now looks so refreshingly breezy back there. For the last 2 weekends we have finally tackled the front yard situation. Husband on roof with wife yelling “Don’t fall, the life insurance check is still in the mail!” – check! Kids playing with dirt, rocks, and water while yelling “We’re making experiences and life is good!” (true story) – check! Me stalking nearly every nursery in town along with Google to find the perfect plants to put in the ground? Yes I did! And now we are just waiting for the things to take shape…

    My best, Lynn
    *Now that the vine is gone and I see you are a little more exposed to the neighbors is that a big deal to you guys or is it more like “Howdy neighbor! Why yes this is omelettes for breakfast, pull up a chair.”?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That house you see waaay in the distance is actually on the opposite side of a street beyond ours (hard to explain, but it’s on a different block). So since we can barely make out the shape of the house (it’s probably around 300 feet away) we’re confident no one can see us eating or anything – not that we’d do naked breakfast out there or anything, haha!

      xo
      s

  44. rachel b says

    What an improvement! Isn’t it silly what we live with?

    So we have had this vine that’s been peaking out the top of our fence in the backyard from the other side. Our backyard backs up to a rental property and for the last few years we didn’t really do anything. But by the end of last summer the vine was hanging over the fence and into our bushes, not to mention that the vine is now damaging our fence boards. So last weekend the husband went to trim back the bushes and then went around to the back and attacked the root. Turns out, it was something poisonous. Poor husband got the worst poison ivy I’ve ever seen… as well as our emergency doctor sister-in-law.

    Reply

  46. heyruthie says

    Just this morning, our preschool dropoff was completely delayed because a crane was removing a tree at the school that was killed by this same vine. the tree was 100+ years old, and it was a real shame. they killed the vine last year, but it was too late. you have probably saved your tree!

    Reply

  47. Sara says

    Good job! My husband wrangled with some azaleas last year and plans to get into a fight with a holly tree that is very tall. (He despises it. It doesn’t really bother me!)

    Reply

  48. Heather says

    I remember when you guys tried to cut that thing off last year and I wondered if it would work :-) Random question- do you guys use any sort of grass feed? We’re prepping our house for sale and trying to get the lawn to look lush. Thanks!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We don’t but we do like to reseed the grass (just overseeding, which involves a lot less seed and prep) each spring and fall. It seems to be a natural way to keep the grass green and healthy (which seems to crowd out the weeds – and then we just pull the remaining ones by hand).

      xo
      s

  50. SunshineGal85 says

    I don’t recognize this part of your house at all. I had to go back three times because I was convinced you were talking about someone else’s house. I had no idea you had this separate upper deck/brick patio area and I’ve never seen a room with such high ceilings and angular windows — wait. This is the exterior of the very strange wall you talked about in your sunroom, isn’t it?

    Just a small tip in case you ever have to get English ivy out of a tree. Cut it off at the base and let it die like you did with this vine. You can pull it out of the tree when it dries up, but don’t pull too hard. The tiny rootlets grip the tiny crevices in bark, then they dry up and lock themselves in there, so if you pull on them, you’ll pull off the bark. Basically, you’d be pretty much stuck with those fuzzy, curly plant bits until they decide to fall off. They can even pull out mortar! I don’t know if this will ever be relevant for you, but I thought I’d pass it along so you don’t have to learn it the hard way, too.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes! This is the upper patio that is outside of the sunroom (it’s also outside the slider in the living room, they each lead out to that upper landing). It’s so funny how the side/back of our house looks so different than the front!

      And as for the English ivy tip, thanks! I never knew that!

      xo
      s

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