The Beauty of a Bamboo Garden

Bamboo is a phenomenally fast-growing plant and great for privacy screening. Put together in lovely garden hedges or as garden border plants.

Bamboo rhizomes spread out to a very close distance from the surface so a fence (like plastic edging) placed 2 feet in front of the soil helps to prevent bamboo plants from reaching further. And pruning every few years in spring is another good option to kill unwanted rhizomes.

Easy to care for
Bamboo can be cared for conveniently and it’s gorgeous almost anywhere, with just a little weeding and pruning. Its leaves are green and pretty, while shielding soil, roots and rhizomes from the sun or wind and recycling silica and other nutrients back into its own body.

Bamboo is usually very rapid the first year or so of planting, but it takes several years before it is actually starting to become a grove. That’s because each new year is bringing forth new canes (culms).

If you plant bamboo in containers, make sure that you give it enough water and fertiliser. Bamboo does best in draining soils with moderate acidity; most species like morning sunlight followed by indirect light in the hottest moments of the day. Mulches can also be used as shield against the weeds found near it.

Easy to grow
Bamboo is one very fast growing plant. Even one bamboo shoot can reach 30 feet in one year! What’s more, its speed of spread could cause conflicts between neighbours or animals with your garden if you don’t handle it well; to prevent this from happening you need to choose the right type of bamboo – one that grows thick sticks called poles, rather than running plants.

But you can’t start planting a bamboo garden without setting it up. All the sunlight must be sown; also the soil must be draining and fertile if available; otherwise amend with living things such as manure, compost or mushroom compost to improve it.

If planting bamboo, make holes twice as wide and half as deep as the transplanted root ball. Sow water in the transplants as soon as you put them in the ground, and keep the area wet during the growing season – with some bamboos it takes years to get to the highest height and diameter.

Easy to maintain
Bamboo is beautiful in the garden. Bamboo is easy and prolific, a wonderful natural privacy fence or peaceful retreat. And there’s even the fact that keeping a bamboo garden is relatively easy — you can plant one nearby or in your house for serenity!

Plant bamboo in a bright sunny place that is not too hot or too windy for the best appearance and health. The location should be at least reasonably fertile and draining; if required add compost or manure as necessary. Avoid flooding the plant and never leave the ground flooded for very long.

Almost all clump-forming bamboos are not as invasive as running varieties and are relatively easy to keep in check with fencing or pot gardening. Some have to be continually trimmed, trimmed of its culms.

Easy to build
Adding a bamboo garden can be a very simple way to make any garden an oasis of peace and harmony. Not only is bamboo visually interesting, and it will hold climbing beans and tomatoes in place, but bamboo can also make the environment green by composting trash or harvest rainwater from drops on its leaves.

The selection of the right species of bamboo is of the upmost importance in your garden. Ask for tan canes that are light tan three to six years old and have turned light tan – that way you know they’re grown tall enough to hold up any kind of structure. Also, search for species that become clustered instead of spreading (runners).

Some species of bamboo can get very invasive, destroying nearby plants and occupying adjacent gardens. If you don’t want that to happen, grow running bamboo in massive pots or containers (galvanized horse troughs are perfect for this), or put up high-density polyethylene plastic rhizome barriers 26-34 inches deep to keep it in check.