This is the first blog article for the series “Rapport de Terrain” — field reports detailing our work in the bamboo groves in the U.S. and Europe.
In 2016 Seattle Bamboo launched a consulting business to advise property owners and exotic garden administrators throughout the world. We have a project now, where a 500 year old French garden wall has succumbed to an expanding grove of Phyllostachys aurea, Golden Bamboo.
The second image is the maintenance of the planting or an attempt to slow the progress. Cutting rhizomes is a traditional way to control bamboo growth but it is symptomatic in nature. If you look closely, this rhizome has been cut twice. Meaning when the rhizome was cut the first time, it grew a new one from the master bud on the neighboring node.
The third image reveals a serious bulge in the wall. A close-up of the actual damage is next.
There is an effective way to resolve the issue of the bamboo rhizomes pushing on the wall. That is to dig a trench 30cm wide by 30cm deep between the wall and the grove, leaving a one meter wide path for maintenance. Every other year, this trench can be re-dug and watch for lower rhizomes trying to sink under the trench or onto and into the wall.
Thank you for reading, please bookmark this page and check in often for updates on our field work in bamboo groves.
Next Rapport de Terrain →