Category Archives: Bamboo

Bamboo, the Experiment Continues…..

Earlier this spring we spend a Saturday preping an area along the south side of our house for bamboo(read about it here).  We like that bamboo will grow quickly, prolifically and tall, covering and shading the south, hot side of our house.  We are also anticipating many other benifits, bamboo creates a lot of biomass to use in the gardens, poles for garden structures and food.

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We ordered our bamboo from a company on Amazon, Maya Gardens Inc.  When the bamboo arrived it was beautiful and green with strong roots, it also came with a few pages full of instructions.  We decided to pot the bamboo up, instead of putting it directly in the ground, it was early spring and still quite cold, in a pot I could easily bring it inside at nights and give it extra loving care. In April we finally got around to planting it in its spot, and one plant promptly went brown and appeared dead, the other plant lost a few leaves, but seemed to be limping along.

I honestly thought we had lost one of them, the instructions said it may happen and it would still live, but still…..

 

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The bamboo that had “died”

 

Then just this last week i was walking past the bamboo beds and something caught my eye.

Something small, and green was poking up among the brown stems of the struggling bamboo plant, then I looked over at the other bamboo and there were several healthy shoots, happily growning, happily green and happily expanding!
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The grand experiment continues, I am excited and optimistic that this might actually work.  One hurdle over come, a few more to go and we have an established bamboo bed.

Bamboo Prep

On the farm this next year, we want to start growing Bamboo.  We want to use it in several ways.  It will help filter our grey water, provide shade for the south side of the house, and give us materials to use for our bean poles and pea poles.  Not to mention that it would be cool to be raising and growing bamboo in the middle of the high desert in Utah.

To help get ready for the bamboo, we installed our grey water system (or the beginning of it).  We moved our bee hives out of the area and put them farther out on the property.   And we have started getting the area ready for planting the bamboo.

One of the things we were able to start over the weekend was to build the series of Hugelkulturs to retain the water from the grey water system, as well as build up the soil for the bamboo.  I was able to build two of the four that we are going to put in the area.

IMG_5780I started by digging out several ditches.  I had Tom help me out with the digging.  He used his scout shovel that he got from Christmas.  It is basically a scout/military travel shovel that allows you to modify it so that the shovel has several different angles you can dig at.

IMG_5773We then filled the trench in with a bunch of old sun flower stocks that were given to us by a relative.  I then also took one of the buckets we use to collect the ashes from our wood burning stove and poured the ashes in the trenches as well.  We then covered the trenches with dirt.

Like most things we do on the farm, we usually try to get as many little hands to help as possible.  Our two little girls help by putting the sun flower stocks in the ditch.  And of course, you can’t work on the farm as a little girl unless you do it in fluffy skirts.

IMG_5785 IMG_5784 IMG_5781Snow boots and all.  I really do enjoy working on the farm, and spending time with the kids as we build, grow, and work the land.

I also ordered the Bamboo.  There are a bunch of places it can be ordered from on the internet, but I found a place on amazon that sells two of the three varieties we want to try.  Here is what we have purchased so far, and we are excited to give it a go.

This is Phyllostachys Auerosulcata

Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis', Golden Crookstem Bamboo, #1 Size Live Plant

This is Phyllostachys Bissetii

Box of 3 Phyllostachys Bissetii Bisset's Bamboo #1 Size Live Plant

In the future, I will probably buy from Bamboogarden.com.  I picked amazon this time around because of the pricing.  We are going out on a limb, and the least amount of money I can spend at this point the better.  If what we buys winters over well, I will buy a larger number from several different vendors.  They were very helpful in helping pick the variety of bamboo that would work in the area we are planning on growing it.