Last week we did it. Planted bamboo, I mean. Here are a couple pictures of the little tykes:
Why bamboo? First, personal reasons.
We live on a very wooded property, which means we have lots of volunteer moss, weeds and miscellaneous plants, along with thousands and millions of leaves every fall. What we don't have a lot of is grass, or, as some might put it, lawn.
Photo originated here.
I tried planting sod and grass seed, which would enthusiastically flourish the first summer, and never return. It took me a couple years to catch on but catch on I finally did, that while the grass seemed to enjoy summering with us, for some reason we weren't the best of year-round grass hosts, and after a winter slumbering in the shade, the grass moved to greener pastures every spring.
So I planted ivy, in anticipation of a thick, lush yard of dark green springy vines. Every year I planted a little more ivy. And every year... I planted a little more ivy. Yet there never seemed to be any more ivy than when I'd started. Finally the guy who cuts my weeds (since I have no grass) summoned the courage to suggest that maybe ivy doesn't like the acid from the oak leaves.
So I crossed ivy off my list.
And then I read an article in the New York Times about bamboo that suggested using it as a ground cover. And I thought, Hey! I have ground! And it needs covering! Bamboo might do.
Second, environmental reasons.
According to the Times:
"Bamboo is a workhorse at sequestering carbon dioxide and pumping out oxygen. It is a tough plant that manufactures its own antibacterial compounds and can thrive without pesticides."
"As a natural and renewable resource bamboo offers an opportunity to turn away from the destruction of native forests towards managed commercial plantations that can be selectively harvested annually without the destruction of the grove or stand. Tree plantations obviously have to be chopped down and their nutrient arrest terminated at harvest. Bamboo keeps on keeping on, with edible shoots capable of extraction after less than five years. ... bamboo can be harvested without the destruction of the grove or stand.
Bamboo minimizes CO2 gases and generates up to 35% more oxygen than equivalent stand of trees."
That sequestering carbon dioxide thing made so much sense I felt quite stupid for not figuring it out myself without having to be told so by the New York Times. Here's how it works:
- Bamboo, like all plants, sucks in carbon dioxide and emits oxygen.
- The carbon dioxide becomes part of the plant, making it a carbon-based life form (a characteristic it shares with Paris Hilton).
- The carbon remains locked in the plant instead of being released into the atmosphere.
- The angels sing, the ozone layer is repaired and global warming is stopped in its tracks, although, sadly, Paris Hilton is still at large.
But bamboo grows like... a weed, I suppose. And the last thing I need is the burden of maintaining my property with a machete in an attempt to subdue a plant:
Image from Movie Dearest
Thank goodness Nature thinks of everything. Who knew? There are TWO kinds of bamboo:
"One can divide bamboos into “Runners” and “Clumpers”. The Clumpers don’t invade. To remove a clumper, just dig it out (and transplant it.) Runners can be well-behaved in cold climates, but some kinds when in a warm climate, and given plenty of water, can become a serious problem. Don’t plant a runner in a small yard in a warm climate, unless you put a barrier around it.
If new shoots of bamboo are coming up all over your yard, it is a running bamboo. To get rid of it, there are four steps:
1. Cut it off.
2. Cut it down.
3. Water and fertilize the area, to cause new growth.
4. Cut it down again. And again."
And again and again and again.
See, it's that "again and again and again" part I can live without.
But there are many varieties of Clumping bamboo. Clumping bamboo, unlike horizontally spreading bamboo, sends out individual rhizomes, allowing the plant to spread only a few inches a year and maintain its original shape.
And... GOOOOOOOOAL! We have a slow-growing ground cover that helps renew the environment and can stand up to shade and leaves and acid and Miss Puppy.
Take that, weeds.
