Ideas for planting above bamboo roots

[tootyfruitypickle]

I moved to my property about 6 months ago and inherited a lot of bamboo!

The front garden is small and the bamboo grows on one side, I had it all chopped back, now just strim it when i do the grass. The grass is messy and I'd like to make something else with the garden. I would like a wildflower garden but I can't remove all the grass - it is hard going . I can;t plant into it as it is covered with bamboo roots. If I sprinkle wildflower seed including flowers that will take over from grass - will they grow without the grass removed? I even tried to put bulbs in there but couldn;t dig in enough.

In the back garden, it was on one border and I have had it cut back , poisoned it several time s, now piled cardboard and new soil over the top (I know it will keep coming back but it's been a few weeks now with no growth so I'm hoping manageable).

I am wondering what I could plant here next year. I'd also like to create a screen as just the other side of this border are the bins (which is why the previous inhabitants planted bamboo but it was out of control ! ) I;m guessing just lots of pots , but wondered if anyone had any ideas for things that will find their roots through lots of dense bamboo roots?! I can add new top soil to help initially.

thanks for any thoughts!

I have purple toadflax, a wildflower, that grows through my bamboo in a planter. It seeded itself there so must be happy. Looks lovely.

thanks @Beebumble2, I'm writing down notes on good wildflowers!

For the front I'm guessing I need to play the long game and start with yellow rattle, I'm just wondering if it will seed over grass though. The grass is constantly yellow so certainly not lush and there are bare patches.

I suppose annual wildflowers must have shallow roots so maybe I need to reseed every year?

just on the drive actually are poppies. And some other wildflowers, i will have to use a plant identifier. I wonder if I just throw on some yellow rattle during august, and then leave it all to do its thing, will the poppies and other wildflowers seed there naturally with a bit of help from the the yellow rattle suppressing the grass? There are a lot of poppies in this neighbourhood.

Yellow rattle should deal with the grass. Poppies will probably spread. Wild flowers and others that self seed usually just turn up where they’re happy. I have lots of Mimulus, lobelia and Bacopa self seeded in my paving, from plants originally grown two years ago.

On GW in autumn last year - still available on iPlayer, think it was the last episode of 2019 - Monty talked about turning grass into wildflower meadow. I think he scarified, in autumn so grass not growing so much, and then sowed a wildflower mix straight in to the scarified lawn with added yellow rattle as well. Don’t think they’ve revisited it yet! I tried to sow a wildflower area at my allotment onto soil that had had all the grass/weeds suppressed with cardboard for a few months, looked like bare soil, but the couch grass still took over anyway.

I don’t know if root barriers are helpful to constrain bamboo retroactively?

@Lemonylemony thanks for the tip! He did waft last it in one recent episode which is where I learnt about yellow rattle