hello, I don't do gardening and it seems I have done something stupid, your advice please. :-)

[Megglevache]

I had a bamboo in a pot that was looking a bit sorry for itself and I chucked the pot and planted it straight into the bed- a month on and it is thriving and growing like I have fingers dusted with bonemeal

Just about everyone thinks I am mad but they are family and old people, they are wrong aren't they? [hopeful]

I don't have grass my garden is all paved over bar two beds that are so dull I needed some green.

This bamboo surely won't take over my whole garden will it?

Depends on the bamboo!

You can eat the shoots though. Tell your family you are making a monoculture allotment

can you???

I think its a Aurea (sp??)bamboo, yes sure it is.

Get a panda as quick as you can

gahhhh

Yep, the young shoots are edible. It shouldn't be tooooo much of a problem in the UK i don't think. Nice plant.

phew...ok will look into munching the shoots.

erm. i think you need to be careful....

Check out forest gardening. I don't think you can just pick 'em and munch...

If it's phyllostachys aurea, you might be okay. My favourite bamboo supplier describes it as 'well behaved'.

Good luck

I think bamboo is very invasive and can grow underneath conservatories and push up the flooring. Your neighbours might be cursing you in a fw months time when their garden is overgrown with the stuff. I would be tempted to dig it up now.

You can keep the more rampant bamboos under some sort of control by burying slates around the plant, to create a barrier against it spreading.

My phyllostachys nigra has still not recovered from the winter and I'd dearly like it to spread a bit!

My neighbour has it against the fence - we have to dig it out of our side every 3-4 weeks.

I would consider digging it up - my parents have just cleared about half an acre of bamboo out of their garden and it was hard work. Could you dig it up, put it in a pot, and replant the pot to contain the roots? I know people who have done that.

Not sure on species, but my dad warned against this for us - i planted ours in a huge pot buried in border in the end.

Have heard stories of needing hack saws to get through the roots when digging them up!