$100 and a number of man hours later by this wonderful young man, the area has been stripped of the ivy completely above the ground. Looking closely I can still see some of the root system is in the ground, despite his hard work and braun (Hate the Ivy! I am a HUGE fan of manking it illegal like in Portland).

Anyway, here is my question - - what is the best thing to ensure that doesn't come back? Do I just pull out any new sprouts or am I better off spraying an herbicide like Roundup on any new growth? I really want to make sure that as many roots are dead as possible before I consider any new plantings an I am willing to wait until next season if necessary to make sure it is completely gone.

I do realize there will always be a battle to wage as neighbors on both sides have Ivy that I don't believe they are willing to remove and I am sure that is where it came from to start with. All help would be greatly appreciated.

After pulling up/out as much ivy as possible, I am carefully painting the weed killer on the new leaves when they appear. It seems to be working, as I have not seen much new growth. On one rock retaining wall, I also painted the weed killer on the cut stems when I couldn't pull them out. That seemed to be very effective.

Roundup will work and is supposed to be relatively environmentally benign. Everything is relative, of course.

It is much more environmentally friendly to just pull off the new sprouts when they appear. It will take longer, but eventually the plants will die if they don't have leaves to make food.

I agree we should make ivy illegal.