I GET TO GROW BAMBOO!!! I GET TO GROW BAMBOO!!!

The Albright Road widening project left me with a dilema.

The road is a one lane road(or two lane depends on how you look at it). They are starting to make it a five lane road.

The good news: none of it is pushing on our property..its all on the other side of the road where a defunct BiLo was at.

The bad news: they wont do any noise abatement.

The problem: more traffic = more noise

The solution: Grow bamboo along my side of the right of way.

Talked to the city of rock hill zoning dept and they have no problem for bamboo to grow as high and as thick as I want on that side since it faces a major road.So its going to be a living fence.

Also I can increase my fence from the house to the living fence from the end of the house corner.Also I am going to increase the back fence from the end of the existing fence to the living fence.and all that fence will be 6' high timber bamboo fencing affixed to the exiting fence beams and supports.Then that area can be for the garden next year.Then Ill redo the rear fence with bamboo.

woohoo!!!!!!!!!!

As someone whose yard was completely and totally ruined when bamboo took over (which it eventually will), why would anyone WANT bamboo in their yard? Unless you have major acreage, it's gonna ruin your yard. We had to pay out the nose to have it dug out after it took over, and they had to completely dig out our lawn and our in-ground sprinkler system to get it out, dig up all our brick walkways, cost us several hundred of dollars to eradicate it (and several hundred dollars was a lot more expensive in 1993 than it is now), and it would still keep coming back. It is a grass (it's a misconception that bamboo is a wood... it can be used like wood, but technically, the way it grows and its genetic makeup, it's a grass) and spreads through underground rhizomes. If it is anywhere near your house and you have a septic system, prepare to have it dug up in about 15 years.

I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.

Oleander makes a nice noise barrier to traffic, as do many other plants that are not nearly as noxious, destructive, and invasive as bamboo. Bamboo's pretty in nature, not so much when the rhizomes eat through your septic system.

ETA: We started with 4 tiny bamboo plants, and it took about 7 years for them to completely take over the entire yard. Food for thought.

HHandbasket said:

As someone whose yard was completely and totally ruined when bamboo took over (which it eventually will), why would anyone WANT bamboo in their yard? Unless you have major acreage, it's gonna ruin your yard. We had to pay out the nose to have it dug out after it took over, and they had to completely dig out our lawn and our in-ground sprinkler system to get it out, dig up all our brick walkways, cost us several hundred of dollars to eradicate it (and several hundred dollars was a lot more expensive in 1993 than it is now), and it would still keep coming back. It is a grass (it's a misconception that bamboo is a wood... it can be used like wood, but technically, the way it grows and its genetic makeup, it's a grass) and spreads through underground rhizomes. If it is anywhere near your house and you have a septic system, prepare to have it dug up in about 15 years.

I wouldn't recommend it my worse enemy.

Click to expand...

X2. That stuff is a nightmare. You could plant some of those tall evergreens, they would hide your house and keep the noise down pretty well I would think.

Bamboo is a great solution for noise abatement. It doesn't actually screen out noise like an abatement wall would, but there is a psychological effect when the leaves and culms rustle in the breeze - it really does make the traffic noise seem less intense.

While I don't disagree with HHandbasket and Godsgrl that it can get out of hand, that's ONLY if you don't make the proper preparations BEFORE you plant it, and fail to maintain it after. If you monitor it faithfully during shooting season (spring to early summer) and nip away any runners and shoots that roam out of bounds, it really is a wonderful plant.

If you don't want it growing back into your yard under the fence, you'll have to install a heavy barrier made of garden-pond grade plastic, almost 3 feet deep into the ground and leaving a "lip" of the plastic protruding about 6 inches above the ground so you can monitor any runners "hopping" up over the ground. The barrier will have to go the entire length of the fence and along any boundary that is not heavily paved, so it doesn't go off your frontage and/or property.

Once you do that, there shouldn't be any problems. The main issue with 'boo is that people plant it without any preparation, then forget about it. Then 10 years later, they're in deep doo-doo (or 'boo-'boo) when the unsupervised plant has grown every which way.

I garden for a living as a horticulturist-gardener, and also grow about 35 species of bamboo on my own small property. In 15 years, I have never had a problem with 'boo going crazy on my tiny 116'x60' urban lot. There is a wooded hill behind me and neighbors on both sides of me and I keep an eye on things, and it actually takes very little actual work each year to keep the 'boo on my property and in the designated spots I want it to grow.

Every spring, I thin the groves (I remove some of the older canes to open it up and let more air and light circulate) and also harvest the shoots I don't want to let grow -- I eat the ones I harvest! You remove the outer "husk" and take the tender center shoot, which can be sliced and steamed, stir fried or even (depending on the variety) eaten raw.

Some great varieties to make a tall, thick screen in South Carolina:
Phyllostachys nigra (black bamboo) -- Gorgeous ebony culms.
Phyllostachys nigra "Henon" -- variety of black bamboo that stays green but gets tall and has big culms.
Phyllostachys aureus -- Golden bamboo. Bright yellow culms
Phyllostachys rubromarginata -- Red-margin bamboo. Gets 50' tall!!!
Phyllostachys nuda -- the shoots are very tasty
Semiarundinaria fastuosa -- a beautiful, upright bamboo that's popular in Japan.

You can also grow Moso bamboo, which is the kind that gets those HUGE high culms. You can make flower vases from the dried culms. This is the 'boo that was featured in the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" when the characters had a kungfu fight on top of a bamboo grove. lol

Also, there are some kinds of bamboo that don't run at all, but form very thick, dense clumps. Anything in the genus Bambusa (for example, Bambusa multiplex) would make a nice hedge and screen. The clumps get big diameters, so you could grow a clump every 8-10 feet and they would fill in. But they wouldn't run.

Anyway, use plenty of compost in the soil when you plant - and add more every year - and you'll have a dense stand of 'boo in just a few years.

I don't know what kind you planted but my neighbors planted some of the larger stuff [30' tall/ 2" dia. ] because they didn't like my redneck yard....Well, it has been a blessing to me. It's been there for almost 20 years and expands very slowly. I have all the garden stakes I need and it is useful for any number of other projects...Great for a fire starter. Once it dies, unless it splits on its own, it's always dry on the inside. I cut it up in sections, smash it with a hammer and I have great kindling.

We grow bamboo for the edible shoots.

Bamboo is one of those plants that needs to be taken care of. GardenGal has given a much better description than I could so there's not much I can add. Take care of the shoots and you won't have spreading problems. There's very little time involved.

There's something very relaxing about bamboo plants. Most of the plant is useful too. Shoots are eaten here, the cane is used for many different things and the fallen leaves help to inhibit weed growth.

Yep, nothing wrong with bamboo when you know the nature of the plant.

Great points from Royd and ThaiTurkey (the kindling tip is great - I have tons of bamboo kindling and I don't think it makes creosote, either, so is safe to use in the woodstove). About about the leaf litter, ThaiTurkey -- I'm glad you mentioned that it is a great weed inhibitor. It's also a fine natural mulch for the grove, keeping moisture in the soil during dry spells And, as the leaves decompose, they put silica back into the soil. Silica is a necessary mineral for bamboo for making sturdy culms.

I've also discovered that a dense grove of bamboo makes a good wildlife habitat. Cardinals, catbirds and other birds seem to seek it out for perching, perhaps to escape hawks and cats.

Bamboo truly is a plant of 1,000 uses... construction timber, food, crafts material, tool handles and garden stakes, chopsticks and toothpicks, kindling, even fibre for clothing. Alive, it makes a fantastic screen and a serene backdrop or specimen in the garden. The Chinese and Japanese poets wrote many sonnets and haiku dedicated to bamboo, and justifiably so. Despite the "nuisance factor" for some, for the vast majority of the world's denizens, bamboo is a crucial part of both nature and domestic horticulture.

There was another thread about bamboo running a few weeks ago where I mentioned our first small plantation and plans for the new one. It's now time to plough for the new one but the guy's busy.

The original plantation is about two years old. We ploughed and planted saplings about half a metre tall. The plants have been topped at three or four metres and more saplings have been taken from the cuttings. The edible shoots have been appearing for some time. Those shoots must be cut, even if you don't intend to eat them, unless you want the plants to spread further. If you have some weak stems, let new strong shoots grow and remove the weak ones.

We have several lines of plants in rows with three or four metres between each plant. The ground under the leaves is weed free and requires no attention. The leaves meet at the top to form a complete canopy and the cool shade is a great relief on a hot day.

We make sure that our bamboo is well watered during the dry season. If you are growing fencing and don't want to nurture the shoots, then that may not be so important.

Here's a local use for bamboo. A closer weave is used for chicks. When our goslings arrived, we put them under one of these domes until they settled and were big enough to wander about on their own.

What great "poultry keeper"! I have bamboo splitters and maybe will try making bamboo laths to weave into baskets or a "keeper" too.
When I was in Nepal, I saw a a keeper with a slightly tighter weave, to hold a mother hen and her brood. The weave had to be a bit smaller so the chicks couldn't squeeze out.

Do the native bamboos shoot year round in Thailand, or during certain times? We have four season here in New England, so the shooting takes place usually from mid-spring to early summer. But I'd imagine that in tropical and subtropical regions it may not be so limited.