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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!emory!wupost!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!hemple
- Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
- Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 21:26:56 EST
- From: William E. Hemple <HEMPLE@auvm.american.edu>
- Message-ID: <92363.212656HEMPLE@auvm.american.edu>
- Newsgroups: rec.gardens
- Subject: Re: propagating bamboo
- References: <0ZigwB1w164w@jwt.UUCP>
- Lines: 23
-
- I would like to warn people of the very serious "downside" to propagating
- bamboo.....................
- ``
- F PF01 UNDEFINED
- qquit
- bamboo. Based on my experience, once a grove is established bamboo is a
- monster. It will drain nutrients from surrounding soil for 40-60 feet.
- It will sprout every which way and weaken and kill your (and your neighbor's)
- grass, rose bushes, ornamental trees and shrubs. It will sprout through
- swimming pool liners, and its root spread is impossible to stop. In some
- states it is classified a "noxious weed," not to be sold in commerce, and
- its owners can be responsible for the damage it causes to their neighbors'
- gardens and property. Commercial herbicides (e.g., "Roundup") affect it almost
- not at all, and removing it may well require a hiring a back hoe. It depresses
- property values, because no one in their senses would buy a house with bamboo
- in the yard, or on adjacent property. I struggled against this "Godzilla"
- for years, and, believe me, it has no redeeming qualities worth its destructiv
- eness. I lived in Japan two years, and, yeah, I know bamboo in Japanese garden
- s is lovely. But the Japanese take great care not to allow bamboo roots to
- spread by digging plants up and repacing them often, by growing them in buried
- concrete tubs, etc. You never see a thick grove of bamboo in a Japanese
- garden, because such a creature is a decidedly hostile act towards one's
- community.
-