Prepare me...I'm getting rid of bamboo

[Anonymous]

I bought a house with bamboo along one fence, which provides some privacy from a nearby apartment. At this point, I will try to keep what I want and have a landscaping company out to install a 3 foot concrete border underground to keep it where it should be.

However, the previous owners obviously tried to contain the bamboo (running bamboo) and it spilled out in all directions, so I have unwanted bamboo stumps and underground rhizomes all over the place. I don't have to cut down tress (done), I just need to dig up every last inch of the underground rhizomes. Can someone tell me if they have ever had to do this, about how labor intensive was it (how long for what patch of land), and how much continual upkeeping (redigging if there were some parts left) was necessary. Do I need to plan to go out with a shovel once a week for 2 years? I just need to prepare myself for my fate...

[Anonymous]

You need to get a few large pandas.

[Anonymous]

Oh, my sympathies! Bamboo is virtually impossible to get rid of, seriously. Not trying to discourage you, but that is the frustrating reality...

[Anonymous]

That's all I seem to read. However, this is what I have to deal with, so I just need to get ready. As I said, I sawed down all the unwanted trees, and I'll have the landscapers put down the concrete flashing for the 15x2 foot patch where I really want the bamboo. If it's any consulation, it APPEARS the bamboo only spread to one side of the patio. I need to hear from somone who HAS done this successfully. Did you need to have a company come out with a backhoe? I don't have the room to get a backhoe in, now that I think about it...

[Anonymous]

You dig as soon as you see a new stalk - dig the whole darn thing out.

We've spent years battling it (OK, my husband has - luckily for me he has taken it on as a personal mission). We almost have won. But now the problem is that our neighbors don't battle it. So it comes back. But it's only the rare stalk now.

But the first few years, it would be dormant for a few months and then suddenly tons of stalks would come up. One even managed to grow into a crack in our garage. We used to joke that we'd come home one day to find our house 6 feet up in the air, raised by bamboo.

[Anonymous]

Oh - and if you want it gone - get rid of ALL Of it. Nothing will stop it. It will break the darn concrete and spread.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I wish I had known something about bamboo before I bought this house. If I had known that (1) the land you see would not support ANY OTHER PLANTS, (2) those random bricks, pieces of slate, rocks are not just a messy project the previous homeowners didn't finish, they were cover up for the 1,000 dry stalks they were trying to cover, and (3) I would be battling for a backyard for years...well, I would not have purchased. Simple as that.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you live at my house?! DH has been waging a personal war of sorts against our bamboo. It is a weekly battle with new shoots coming up weekly, waving their middle bamboo finger at us. He dug everything out with a pickax over a couple of weekends (it was maybe 10 feet by 2 feet) but there are some stray shoots. It's about 97% gone. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

OP, don't listen to the other posters-they're just happy go lucky idiots. Bamboo in this area is equivalent to the Gulf Oil Spill. Move to Alaska immediately-nothing grows there but alcoholism and beauty queen brainless political wannabees.

[Anonymous]

round up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:round up?

nope. won't do it. The only thing that works is digging up every single root.

[Anonymous]

There was in article in the WaPost R/E section in the last year or two. The guy did everything and NOTHING got rid of it, including blowing it up (can't remember how). We almost bought a house with bamboo but our R/E agent warned us about it. From what I understand, the best you can do is try to manage it but it won't go away. Good luck to you!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to get a few large pandas.

lol. still think it will still be out of control, except maybe for the leaves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh - and if you want it gone - get rid of ALL Of it. Nothing will stop it. It will break the darn concrete and spread.

Agreed, do NOT leave a patch, even if you have all the concrete in the world. It will crack, the baboo will make its way out, eventually. You need a small backhoe and you need to dig out your yard-about a foot down. Get a dumpster and just throw everything away. Take the opportunity to put down new composted soil and sod. Sounds like your yard is not huge. If your DH is handy he could use a backhoe or small digger. My DH did it do dig down into our sloped yard to build up a retaining wall and install our playground.

You have to do your neighbors patch as well, or else it will be back.

Bamboo should be illegal in this country. It is so invasive and destructive.

[Anonymous]

You will need to get a backhoe. We tried to shovel our large patch out and were completely unable to get the shovel through the root structure at all. Our neighbors still have their adjacent bamboo, so I don't know how much comes back from that our from not getting the roots, but we are on year 4 of the battle. Round-up helps a little, but not much. The black plastic sheeting over the roots is totally worthless, as are piles of mulch. I agree with PP the only hope is to literally shovel out every single root.

We didn't and had to just mulch and put a bench and stepping stones over the area where we tore ours out because there is no way we could grass to grow there. And trimming the sprouts back and spraying the remainder with round-up has to be done every time we mow because it wasn't dug out properly. The situation has improved, but it is a remarkably resilient plant.