Uses for Bamboo
Shannon wrote in last month
with some excellent suggestions about bamboo:
Have
you guys considered bamboo as a sustainable resource? Every year,
about 15 new shoots come up from a 3" diameter and 15-30 foot long
bamboo patch in my yard. I harvest the ones that have been around
for 2-3 years and use them for everything from grape vine trellises, to
bean plant supports, to lumber.
I
am already thinking about how I can put together a chicken tractor or
rabbit hutch with the excess I have this year. It is
rot resistant, strong, etc.
I am going to take a trip to a local grower one day. They have varieties that are everything from 1/4" diameter and 8 feet long, to 12" diameter and 80-120' long. I want to plant some of the bigger variety soon.
Another great use for the bamboo once harvested is the dropped leaves make a pretty good natural mulch. I cut down the bamboo, drag them where I want them and then strip off all the branches in a pile. The leaves drop off the branches in about two weeks, then I get a rake and rake up all the leaves and put them in the garden.
Bamboo is a wonder plant as far as I am concerned.
I
am already thinking about how I can put together a chicken tractor or
rabbit hutch with the excess I have this year. It is
rot resistant, strong, etc. I am going to take a trip to a local grower one day. They have varieties that are everything from 1/4" diameter and 8 feet long, to 12" diameter and 80-120' long. I want to plant some of the bigger variety soon.
Another great use for the bamboo once harvested is the dropped leaves make a pretty good natural mulch. I cut down the bamboo, drag them where I want them and then strip off all the branches in a pile. The leaves drop off the branches in about two weeks, then I get a rake and rake up all the leaves and put them in the garden.
Bamboo is a wonder plant as far as I am concerned.
I'd add to Shannon's
advice that it's worth checking out the native North American bamboo,
River Cane, first. Be careful, because some non-native species
can turn invasive. We're looking into planting some River Cane
and some non-invasive timber bamboo.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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