English Ivy

Hedera helix

Basketry

English ivy makes a beautiful weaving material. It can either be woven whole with the bark or split and peeled into smaller flat beige strands.

Christi York has a series of videos describing the process to split and peel ivy in preparation for weaving. The basic process she outlines is the following:

• With a knife make a small cut in the end of the ivy to split it in half.
• Pull the ivy apart, splitting it down the middle.
• Make your hands into fists and place them on either side. Use your thumbs to pull the ivy apart and your knuckle to hold the ivy in place.
• If one side starts becoming thinner keep that hand still and the ivy vertical. Split the ivy by pulling the other side away.
• Once the ivy has been split it can be peeled. The bark of young fresh ivy will pull away easily. Otherwise a knife can be run along to take off the bark.
• The ivy can then be split into quarters in the same manner as before.
• Wrap the ivy into small bundles to dry. This will make it easy to fit into a bowl to rehydrate later.

Laundry Detergent

Ivy leaves contain saponins. This chemical works to deter animals from eating the leaves but has some other interesting properties.

Saponins are a type of molecule called a surfactant where one end of the molecule is hydrophobic (water repelling) and the other end is hydrophilic (water loving). This configuration allows for oils and other substances to be dissolved and emulsified in water.

Surfactants are a key ingredient in laundry detergents.

To make laundry detergent out of ivy leaves:

• Collect enough ivy leaves to fill a saucepan.
• Rinse them off to remove any dirt on the leaves.
• Roughly chop them up with scissors or a knife.
• Add to a pot and cover with water.
• Bring to a low simmer for 15 minutes.
• Strain out the leaves and save the liquid
• Add the ivy water to your laundry the same way you'd add liquid detergent.

As you pour the ivy water you will notice it foaming. This means you did it right and the saponins are ready to do their job!

You can also add washing soda to your laundry detergent to give it a boost especially if you live in an area with hard water (water with a high mineral content).

Medicinal

The same saponins that lend ivy leaves their cleaning ability also have medicinal qualities. Ivy leave extracts are used by herbalists as an expectorant to help provide relieve for phlegmy coughs. Ivy can cause stomach upset and naseau in some people.

The efficiacy of these treatments isn't robustely confirmed in scientific literature, there are some indications it helps but there are few studies and many of them have risk of bias as overview in this systemic review article.

Star Wands

Ivy vines can be woven into adorable star wands, based on techniques used for making them out of willow. It makes a cute quick project for kids and adults.

I've written a printable mini-zine on how to make them. You can read it here.

Mushroom Growing

Forest Care with Fungi is an amazing project that explores growing edible and medicinal mushrooms on introduced plant matter. They detail their process for growing oyster mushrooms on English Ivy here. Even if you aren't planning on growing mushrooms this document is worth a read. They frame introduced plants in the understanding of relationship that doesn't blame the plant.