Bamboo is fairly easy to contain- just surround the area with a 60mil thick plastic barrier. I've been growing bamboo for two decades in my yard without issue.
It also won't spread beyond wet areas, so a lot of people control it simply by not watering the surrounding areas.
In terms of maintenance, bamboo only shoots for a few weeks in the spring - it won't grow at all for the rest of the year. The real scourge in my yard are the weeds that grow year-round.
Can fall to mention that bamboo shoots are edible when very young. Very good mixed with macaroni in my opinion.
I would never plant bamboo in my garden in any case but if you have it, treat it like a vegetable. If it can't be cut applying a slight pressure with a potato knife is too old. Discard the hard central parts. Cook the soft parts near nodes.
At least in northern Virginia it sprouted shoots all spring and summer and it was not in a wet/non draining area or an area we ever watered.
Maybe different species have different growing characteristics but the one we had was awful and constantly was trying to creep from the side of the back yard into the main lawn area.
I could see it being a lot harder to contain in the south. I'm in a dry area in California and it won't grow where I don't water.
There are definitely different species of bamboo. The two main categories are running and clumping. Running bamboo is the hardest to contain, with rhizomes that travel long distances. Clumping bamboo spreads slowly.
Comments
Bamboo is fairly easy to contain- just surround the area with a 60mil thick plastic barrier. I've been growing bamboo for two decades in my yard without issue.
It also won't spread beyond wet areas, so a lot of people control it simply by not watering the surrounding areas.
In terms of maintenance, bamboo only shoots for a few weeks in the spring - it won't grow at all for the rest of the year. The real scourge in my yard are the weeds that grow year-round.
Can fall to mention that bamboo shoots are edible when very young. Very good mixed with macaroni in my opinion.
I would never plant bamboo in my garden in any case but if you have it, treat it like a vegetable. If it can't be cut applying a slight pressure with a potato knife is too old. Discard the hard central parts. Cook the soft parts near nodes.
At least in northern Virginia it sprouted shoots all spring and summer and it was not in a wet/non draining area or an area we ever watered.
Maybe different species have different growing characteristics but the one we had was awful and constantly was trying to creep from the side of the back yard into the main lawn area.
I could see it being a lot harder to contain in the south. I'm in a dry area in California and it won't grow where I don't water.
There are definitely different species of bamboo. The two main categories are running and clumping. Running bamboo is the hardest to contain, with rhizomes that travel long distances. Clumping bamboo spreads slowly.