by Glory Lennon

Created on: September 14, 2008

Bamboo is extraordinary. The Bamboo's culms, those thick woody stems, have a million uses. They can be only as thick as a straw and actually used as a straw or 4-6 inches in diameter. They can be made into bird feeders, ornaments for home and garden, wind chimes, water features for the Japanese garden, for staking plants, in making furniture, trellises, musical instruments, bird houses, picket fencing and even garden sheds. Yes, it's hard not to love the Bamboo.

Some folks, however, are scared to plant Bamboo in their landscape as they have a nasty reputation of acting like weeds, rampant and tenacious. This is true for those who don't put some controls on them. But of course, being a smart gardener you know to do this or you will after I tell you.

Though there are thousands of cultivars of Bamboo all with their own growing requirements they are all similar in that they like ample water but won't grow in boggy areas. They are quite drought tolerant once established but won't send their rhizomes out into dry soil nor into water. Seems a bit of a contradiction, doesn't it? But it also gives us the means to curb it's wondering ways.

Giving Bamboo sturdy barriers will contain its growth but they have to be really tough such as poured concrete, galvanized sheet metal or bottomless oil drums dug into the ground at least 3 feet deep and sticking up out of the ground 6-8 inches. Planting Bamboo in poor soil and restricting water and fertilizer works as well. Planting Bamboo on a high mound and digging a foot deep trench around it will make it easy for you to see encroaching rhizomes which you can easily snap off with a sharp spade.

Bamboo comes in clump forming and running types. The clump former is often though not always slower growing and more easily contained than the running variety. But don't let that deter you from trying the running type if it has a nicer form for your particular application. Bamboo can be fantastic as single specimens in the landscape but they are more often used as screens, tall hedges and sound barriers. No matter how you want to use it here are some of the better cultivars for home landscaping.

Bambusa Ventricosa, Buddha's Belly Bamboo, a clump forming type good to zone 9, gets its name from the swollen culms when the plant is confined in a pot or grown in poor soil with little water. Its growth can be kept at 3-6 feet but when fed properly the straight stems become un-swollen and can get 15-30 feet tall.

For a gracefully arching clumping Bamboo

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