Growing bamboo

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Radio interview source: James A. Baggett, editor, Nature's Garden magazine

One of the plants I'd like to add to my property is bamboo. It grows super fast -- up to 80 feet tall in 40 days! I think it will make an interesting border leading up to the shed.

Bamboo has three different sizes: Giant bamboo grows up to 100 feet high. Medium-sized varieties range 4-15 feet in height. And groundcovers average 1-4 feet tall.

Clumping and running timber are the two types of bamboo. Clumping varieties do well in containers, both indoors and out. For the border that I want, James Baggett, the editor of Nature's Garden magazine, says running varieties of bamboo make a beautiful grove, but can be invasive. So, there are a couple tricks to keeping it under control.

"You need to dig about a 3-foot-deep trench, and you do need to line the sides with a barrier, preferably metal, that comes up about 2 to 3 inches above the surface of the soil," Baggett says. "That should contain it. And as the roots go over that top barrier, you can reach in and control them and cut them back."

You have to be diligent about cutting the roots back, because many species of bamboo spread as far wide as it grows tall. But, this is about the only maintenance you'll have to worry about.

"If you do want to grow a grove of these, they prefer to drop their litter on the leaf floor to provide the nutrients for the plants itself," Baggett says. "So that's something you want to leave on the ground, and let that plant absorb back up little nutrient packets that drop off."