Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

June 24th, 2008

In May 2005, I got a tiny transplant of Bissettii bamboo from a relative’s grove. I carefully planted it, added some compost and organic fertilizer and then it dried up. My neighbor, who never fails to give her opinion, walked over and said “I think your tree is dead.”

I almost said HOW DARE YOU, but held my tongue. I politely said “I hope it will be okay…we’ll see.”

In early spring 2006 I began to see little shoots popping up. My bamboo LIVED and made babies! I was over the moon.

My neighbor came over and said “What is that? Are you growing asparagus?”

Indeed, the shoots looked like asparagus (and that’s how they tasted when we ate some two years later). I said “No, that’s my bamboo sending out shoots.” I’m not sure she really understood what bamboo was. That’s something they grow in China, right?

Those shoots turned into pretty little bamboos, all leafed out. How I loved to look out the window during a thunderstorm and watch the bamboo waving in the wind, so strong and a beautiful green.

The saying about bamboo goes: First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap. I had no idea just how it would leap.

More shoots emerged in spring 2007, but this time, the mother (that first tiny transplant is “The Mother”) sent out some rhizomes (the root things that are very shallow and like ropes if you pull them up) in a new direction. I hadn’t known what I was doing when I planted the mother, and every year I seem to expand my vegetable garden. My garden collided with the bamboo. The new growth was at a right angle from the original growth. I basically had a right corner at the very edges of my garden.

It was cool looking, but as the bamboo grew, it began to create too much shade on one end of the garden. I was conflicted about what to do. I couldn’t just pull up all of the new growth – it was finally leaping and I wanted the leap. So I decided to let it grow until fall, when I planned to relocate that line at the end of the garden. My plan was to dig it up, still attached to the mother plant, and walk it 90 degrees so that my grove would be one straight line.

In the meantime, the bamboo just thrived in 2007 and sometimes I would just stare at it and smile. I’ve always loved the look of bamboo, but I had no idea how in love I would fall with the species. Madly! Many boo lovers start off this way, one little plant and then they become addicts.

In fall, I didn’t get the bamboo moved as planned, so postponed my plan til spring of 08. In early spring, it began to shoot again….like mad. I had not followed the number one rule of growing a running bamboo: make a yearly commitment to maintenance and trim any wayward rhizomes. This is a mistake I’ll not make again.

There were so many shoots, I knew it was not practical to save them. So we ate some:

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It tasted like asparagus, and was just okay. It was nothing like the kind of bamboo shoots you get in a can or in an Asian dish. Those are kind of chewy and crunchy. These were soft and tender (I did boil them, per instructions). They were also a LOT of work getting the husks off. It was fun, but I doubt we’ll do that again. The window of edibility is short and comes at a time in spring where I’m rushing around trying to get gardens prepped.

I broke off most of the shoots – they snap right off quite easily, and then pulled up many rhizomes. If you do it when they’re young like that, it’s pretty easy work. The rhizomes just pull out of the ground.

I estimate that I destroyed about 80 percent of the new crop. But that 20 percent I didn’t destroy has turned HUGE. Talk about a growth spurt. It is GORGEOUS and upwards of 15 feet high. Lush and thick, just too pretty for words.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut it down. I’ll leave the bamboo that is growing the direction I want, in line with lattice that I put up. But all of the bamboo that grew when the mother sent rhizomes to the north edge of my garden is going to have to be cut down. I tried very hard, but digging it up and walking it to a better space just didn’t happen. I’m afraid I needed a small bulldozer.

I did manage to dig up four transplants that are very tall, but very spindly. Those will be four new mothers, and I hope they’ll send their growth in the proper direction.

I’m so sorry to lose so much of my grove, but there’s really no other choice. It’s growing into the vegetable garden, in fact creating a beautiful canopy. It looks great, but that’s not conducive to the sunlight my vegetables need.

The good news is that I have a new plan, and that is to harvest the cane. I’m planning on making an Asian-style green fence, not curing it. I know this violates “the rules” of proper bambooery, but the green cane is pretty and will cure in its own way. It may not last the decades it would if I cured it properly, but I think it will provide just fine.

It’s bittersweet. I love my bamboo so very much, almost like a pet. And in fact, one of our cats loves to lie under the bamboo and pretend he’s the King of Egypt.

Possibly Related Posts

• Moving my bamboo – Phyllostachys Bissetii
• Bamboo out of control, so let’s eat the shoots!

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