I love bamboo and I love my bamboo forest. When I moved into my house about eight years ago, I was enthralled, as was everyone else that I would have this gorgeous year-round green forest surrounding my pool, as well as separating my house from my neighbors’.
The privacy of bamboo is like nothing else. You absolutely cannot see through it and it just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing and… The birds love having a home that they can count on all year and it miraculously stays green and lush through the winter.
But then, I had to top it, to keep from having the trees bend over like a weeping willow. The Bamboo trees in my yard grow to be 50 to 60 feet high and it is a chore…to top them.
Then, there are the tiny white leaves which fall in late spring, right about the time I open my pool!!! Those little bitty leaves cost me a ton of money to get my pool filtration system working again.
Well, the upshot is that I could not believe that as much as I adored my bamboo, it was getting rather annoying. It grew everywhere I didn’t want it and didn’t grow where I DID want it.
I decided to cut down the bamboo that was closest to my pool, to try to keep from having those leaves gum up my pool filter. My friend and I spent at least 8 hours cutting and bagging. (Bamboo trunks are incredibly thick) We were so happy with the results. But…(theme from Jaws), evidently we basked in that light a little too long. Within one week, I had bamboo sprouts as thick as thieves, which had grown 6 feet high. @#$! All that work for NOTHING!!!
SO………to Lowe’s I went and picked up Triple Threat, which guarantees that where you have sprayed it, nothing will grow for at least a year or two. And guess what??? It worked. Triple threat, my hands thank you, my back thanks you, my legs thank you and…my pool thanks you!!!
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Bamboo is a beautiful plant if grown appropriately. There are clumping varieties that do not send runners everywhere and are therefore easier to control. Secondly, if you do feel the need to plant the varieties that run, contain them in a bunker of concrete, fabric or even garbage cans with the bottoms cut out and sunk in the ground.
What we want to avoid is nuking them with Chemicals such as Triple Threat that is so harsh on the environment. Work with Mother Nature not against it.