Bamboo

I have bamboo. Well, I knew I had the plants, but I thought that they were the ornamental, clumping kind. I was in denial. Every year several dozen shoots would pop up and I would cut them off, like It said in the book, and poison the leaves carefully. I thought I was in charge of it. I was in denial. I was wrong. Peter and I began to tackle my raised beds at the weekend and this is what we found. The soil is lovely, but the bamboo roots are completely matted right through it.

               

Sandra googled and found this. Good advice, but no way I can get a truck or tractor into my back yard - I'd be pushing it to get a small digger down the side passage,

We will keep at it - it will get easier I think. The hope is that once we get to the level of the surrounding ground there won't be any more - it isn't supposed to grow deeper than 45 cm and the beds are quite a bit higher than that.

Comments

[Erica]

hhmmm......bamboo knitting needles??

[Jussi]

I don't like seeing Peter lying on the ground like that...makes me nervous that some snake or spider will bite him, you know how I obsess about these things...

[Adele]

Peter's probably already told you this, but i read somewhere that you need to put lawn fertilizer on it (because it's just a very big grass) then when it shoots, smother it in Roundup.

[peter]

Adele - Grumpy hates herbicides & avoids them when he can. A bit of hard yakka rarely hurt anyone.

[Sarah]

Have you seen those little "Dingo" diggers you can hire? You might be able to get one of those into your yard.

[Lara Nettle]

Poison and compost :) Once it's dead. A hot compost heap on top of it will help to break down the organic matter.

Good Luck !

Lara

[Monica]

Love the pic of Peter! :)

xxx