Bamboo

After I finally removed the God for saken apple trees out of the backyard, I managed to flatten the whole thing out. The whole endeavor took about 3 months. All of the rocks you see in the picture to the upper right I pulled out of the back, one at a time. In retrospect it was a very humbling experience.

In the August 2003 picture above, you can see the height of the plants I purchased. Each one was already about 15ft tall. Starting from the right going to left it’s Timber Bamboo, Bamboo Sweetshoot, Timber, Sweetshoot then Timber Bamboo again on the left. To save space I decided for moving our garden and trellising the fruits and vegetables over near the garage.
As you may have guessed controling the speading was a major concern of mine. Mentioning bamboo in a gathering of any size is nearly certain to prompt hysterical cursing from someone who has experienced an attack from the demonic plant that invaded unexpectedly and ceaselessly, and count not be stopped or killed. Such fear and venom is primarily directed at bamboos with a diffuse growth habit.

Another method is to dig a trench around the bamboo and leave it open. You can inspect the trench regularly and cut any underground rhizomes trying to cross over. Other people have used this method but filled the trench with gravel or mulch. Then each fall a shovel is thrust down into the trench, going all around the grove, pruning any rhizomes that are crossing the ditch. I am aware of several people using this method quite effectively.

The other day I thought of building wooden beds to plant the bory bamboo in. After a little research, I found a good article on how to build raised beds. The author, Kelly Wood is actually from here in Portland, Oregon.

When I first started researching bamboo I searched for bamboo gardens in google and found out one of the best bamboo nurseries in the United States is right here in my local hometown Portland Oregon.

http://www.bamboogarden.com/