Good grief

[burnie]

Even the plants are after us...…………………….
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/...cid=spartandhp

[greenishfing]

......Day of the Triffids!!!

[Snoop Puss]

Bamboo is a menace. Some farmers here used to plant it as windbreaks in valleys. Nobody does it now. The stuff is a menace: unkillable and it sucks up water like nobody's business. I've seen tractors with special flails attached smash it down and then plough it up to the best of their abilities, but within a year or two it's back, as tall and as dense as before. And it doesn't half encroach where you don't want it...

[Babru]

When we bought our house two years ago there was nothing in the garden but 40 foot of 10 foot tall bamboo surrounded by paving. Our plan was always to remove both bamboo and paving and make a proper garden. However it quickly became clear that the bamboo was running all over the place because by February/March it was starting to shoot up through the paving, all over. I reckon the last owner sold up because she couldn't cope and was horrified with what she'd unleashed.

[nickdub]

I've got a small clump of black bamboo in an unloved corner of my wilderness, which after 20 years is about 10' across. I harvest canes from it as and when for use elsewhere in the garden. I wouldn't say it's a thing of beauty but it does a job and is better looking than the mud that was there before - not something I'd recommend for anyone with a small garden though.

BTW its still a mystery how bamboo counts years so that it knows when to flower, if anyone is looking for a project in biology.

[Babru]

Does bamboo flower after a set number of years then nickdub?

I quite like the black bamboo tbh, but my other half would have a hairy fit if any bamboo plant crossed the threshold, as he spent months digging out the last stuff. The worst of it was, the canes were too thin and spindly to be of any use. I'd imagined having a lifetime's supply of canes, plus enough for all my friends.

[nickdub]

Does bamboo flower after a set number of years then nickdub?

I quite like the black bamboo tbh, but my other half would have a hairy fit if any bamboo plant crossed the threshold, as he spent months digging out the last stuff. The worst of it was, the canes were too thin and spindly to be of any use. I'd imagined having a lifetime's supply of canes, plus enough for all my friends.

Yes bamboo flowers at the same time in different places after several years - I think with one variety the gap between one flowering and the next is over 100 years.

My black bamboo is a bit spindly but some thicker canes are over 1/2 an inch thick at the base and about 8' long - I use it to shore up my pea sticks and similar :-)