Battling with Bamboo

For years, many people have added bamboo to their homes because it makes a perfect natural fence and can be used to section off areas of your yard for other uses. You can make a nice walking path, cordon off a hot tub area, or even make a calm area with a fountain and relaxing atmosphere away from the rest of the world. The real problem comes after you have planted this invasive hedge. These plants have a very intricate root system and through these roots, these can sprout new stalks. This means that anywhere the roots can go, the bamboo will take over. This could spell disaster for your lawn and you may end up with an Asian forest in your backyard. If you let it go too long, you might as well buy a panda and sell your home to the zoo. You do have a couple options though. The first option is to constantly pluck the new growth and try to fight it back. You will soon find that this is a fight you are destined to lose. The other option may take a little extra work from the beginning, but it will be well worth it.

Since bamboo will sprout from its root system, if you can control the roots, you control the plant. This is a little harder to do when it comes to this tree. The best thing to do is use a little concrete. The roots of this plant can burrow through wood and even loose rock. The only hope you have of containing it is to make a cement lined trench. This will make it easy to contain the shrub and you can even make some very nice designs or custom paths with your plants. By confining them to a narrow area and sealing off the roots from expanding too far, you can obtain the beauty and serenity that these plants offer without paying the high labor price for it.

The first thing that you will need to do is dig a trench. Bamboo will grow very thick on its own, especially when you limit where it can grow. This trench will only need to be about one and a half to two and a half feet wide. This will depend on the desired thickness of your wall. The extra 6" will be for the concrete. You will want a 3" "wall" on either side of the trench to contain the roots, so you will need to a lot for this when you dig. One good rule of thumb for the depth would be to make the trench the same depth as the width. You do not, however, need to go deeper than two and a half feet, regardless of width.

Once you get the trench dug, you can now start to line it with concrete. You can either use blocks or build a wooden frame to pour the concrete in. The easiest way to get a nice and uniform layer of cement is to build a wooden frame. For this you will need a sheet of plywood and one three by (whatever dimension you want). You can also use a two by whatever if you want a thinner cement liner. It is not recommended to make it any thinner than 2" because it can crack and the roots can breach your barrier. You can either cut the plywood, or have the hardware store cut it for you. You will want two strips that match the depth of your trench and one strip that matches the width minus four to six inches depending on the thickness of your layer. Now you can cut the board. Cut the board into six pieces; two that match the width and four that match the depth. Once you have all the pieces, you can assemble your frame. The first step is to take two of the depth boards and one width and nail them together. To do this, stand the two depth boards up and put the width on top. Make sure that everything is flush and then nail it together. Repeat these steps for the other side. Now that you have the end caps built, you can attach the plywood. Turn the end caps over and nail in the width sheet to the top side of the bottom board of the frame. Now you can attach the other two sheets of ply to the inside of the depth boards. It does not have to be perfect or entirely flush. As long as it is close enough to hold the concrete in. Once you have this constructed, place it in the trench. Now you can fill the inside of the frame with concrete. Once it is dry, you can remove the frame and either slide it to the next section to create the next piece of the wall.

Once you get the liner installed, you can now fill it with your soil and start the planting. For bamboo, the soil that produces the best looking trees is a clay-like loam. You can get this from any gardening store and it is not only common, but usually cheap. Bamboo is very similar to a weed in the way it grows and spreads and it can thrive in any type of soil. The clay loam just gives a bit of a brighter green color to your plant. There are several other soils that do this and Miracle-Gro soil is another good type to use. You can now fill your trench with the soil and get it ready to plant. You will want the soil to sit for a little while before you plant. Two to three days should be sufficient to let it settle, but at least let it sit over night. This will allow the soil to settle so that it will be a more stable base for your plants. It will also appear to shrink in this period, so you may need to "top it off" each morning.

Once you let the soil sit for a while, you can start to plant. This is the easy part. Make a small hole every four to six inches, depending on how thick you want your wall, and set the soil to the side. Before you drop the plants in, you may want to lightly water everything. This is a good idea no matter what you are planting. It will help to reduce the shock the plant goes through in a replanting and helps to prepare the soil as well. Once you spray the area down, drop in your bamboo and cover the roots with the soil you set aside.

That is all there is to it. By following these steps, you can get a great bamboo wall or path without all the headaches that usually accompany it. It will take a couple months for the shoots to thicken up and make a complete privacy wall, but you do not want to start with too many plants. By getting too many, they will quickly crowd each other and eventually die out. By starting one every six inches, you can get a nice thick wall that will last for ages. You may want to talk to a gardener in your area for some climate or soil concerns with bamboo. If you get freezing temperatures in the winter time, there may be a few tips and tricks to keep your shoots healthy through this tough time. You can also figure out the best feeding and watering cycles to use. Every area is different and has a different process to follow. If you talk to a local gardening store, they can often help you get the perfect regime for your plants and climate.