A Yardfull of Bamboo

This is a young bamboo plant. Maybe two years, probably younger. As you can see the plant is Christmas-tree shaped until it is much taller. The abundant growth towards the bottom is actually new stalks rising from the web of roots that shoot out from the center tree. Yes, this is in the middle of my backyard. Bamboo is very invasive. We had a small forest of bamboo in the yard and my roommate chopped a good chunk of it down and let it dry. I then went and picked through a heap of sticks to find suitable sized bamboo to begin working with. I figure, it's free materials, with tons of prospective uses, so I can't pass it up.

All I have to do is take pictures along the way so you can come with on my crazy journey, and if you like it, it was worth it.

I'm glad it's spring and warm out! I'm so tired of cold I'm willing to break out a summery sweat in the yard!

This is in the back corner of our yard. Note the leaf pile which is probably mostly compost beneath. The bamboo nicely guards the sight of an ugly fence or a compost heap but it so easily travels across your yard. All it has to do is take root.  Then it's a world of a challenge to get the entire plant out of the ground. If you just chop the stalks down many more will grow from the trunk/root that is still grounded. But if you don't mind putting in back-bending labor for only weeks of cleared space, go ahead and machete the crop out of it! At least you can use the stuff!

This is the segment of fence between our neighbors' driveway and the back of our yard which we tried to garden in. You can see why it makes a beautiful privacy fence but also a shady, crowded garden.

Here you can see the fence in the area where she cleared the bamboo. I wish she would have left some to hide the fence. Though it looks small, this is the corner of our yard we attempted to garden. Bamboo and a year later, I'm growing a container garden and harvesting bamboo. Hah!

This is what the stalks look like if you take a machete to a bamboo forest. They are hollow and yet still very sharp and strong, so don't trip or step on them! Note how the top left shoot has begun re-growing.
 

These long pieces were the biggest ones from the clearing, stalks taller than me!! Saved by my roommate, I think she wanted to make a fence... But they're too thick for my uses so I let them be.

This is what I call hand-pruned sticks. I gathered them from a huge pile of what looks like garden trash and pulled with my hands, to get the twigs off. It is so strong, you need scissors or garden clippers and sandpaper to make the sticks perfectly smooth. I prefer using short sticks, easier to handle. Also the thickness is important to the use. If you want to carve utensils out of bamboo you need thicker stalks. I want to make these into toggle buttons or wind chimes. 

These sticks are close enough to finished I placed them in the sun to make sure they're dry and that there's no bugs hanging about. Then it takes creativity, elbow grease and a secret concoction of tools to make the usable bamboo rods into something beautiful and durable. (Obviously the one needs to sit out longer and dry more since it is still green.)

And then there's this lazy mutt.
Yeah, she put in a hard day of work laying in the sun and yawning between cat nip and cat naps.