Bamboo in garden

[Pinkflamingoz]

We recently moved house and can see some bamboo stalks at the back of the garden. Looks like the house behind has it in theirs, I assume it’s spread from there. Any suggestions?

Personally I would speak to the owners of house behind to let them know, ask them to get rid of the plant (nicely) and then I would start poisoning the stalks on my side with glyphosate.

You could also dig it out and install a root barrier but getting the main clump removed by your neighbours is the aim. I've installed a root barrier for Bamboo before and it didn't work long term....

By all means remove the shoots on your side, but you would come across as an extremely cf telling them what they can and cannot grow in their own garden

CF bingo! 😁

Asking someone to remove bamboo from a boundary is not being cheeky. It's a problematic plant.

I wouldn't hesitate to ask them to get it out, with a smile of course. You want bamboo? Plant it away from other people's gardens. Or stick it in a pot.

Sounds like the type of bamboo to spread rather than clump. I have 2 clumps that haven't spread in over 20 years in my garden. I'd speak to them as they may be keen to get rid of it too.

Bamboo was in my garden when I bought the house, twice it has been dug out, professionally, both times it has managed to pop back up on my side as my neighbours are not gardeners and just leave it growing their side, despite me telling them it is very invasive, they do not seem at all bothered by it being so close to their extension.

I've done my best to keep on top of it when it appears, I even found it coming up in the lawn as I haven't mowed for about two weeks with the hot weather. I snipped it out. I do use weedkiller when I see the slightest sign of it coming back up into my garden but if next door won't do anything their side I'm not sure what else I can do. Bastard stuff!

I work in gardens and the neighbour of one customer has bamboo which travelled under their fence, across customer's terrace and was actually coming up against the walls of his house.

This is worth a read: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/my-neighbours-bamboo-caused-60k-worth-of-damage/

archive.ph/9rsqp

Me and the customer's neighbour spent three years trying to dig it out but new shoots kept popping up. We lifted the slabs and there was a mass of woody roots growing towards the house. Removed what we could but it's still trying so I'm unapologetically poisoning it.

Why did the root barrier fail?

But it's highly invasive. I'm surprised people are allowed to plant it. It's going to become the new Japanese Knotweed, I reckon.

75cm deep root barrier from tough plastic - the plant just adapted and grew under it. In the OP's circs, it will also grow round it, since they cannot contain the plant circularly with a barrier.

My neighbours bamboo’s coming through the hedge.
I’ve been putting rubber gloves on & wiping neat glysophate weed killer on each stalk. It’s does kill it off back to the root after about a week but it’s a pain in the arse doing it on new shoots that come through pretty much every week.
Neighbour gives no shits about it, it’s spread across his entire garden up to the wall of his house. I’m fighting a loosing battle.
Hope you have some better neighbours that will remove the main root

If it's up to his walls it'll be through them at some point and then he may start to give some shits. Bamboo is incredibly destructive and both the roots and stems are extremely hard and woody, plus its main aim is to form a forest. It covers entire mountain sides in some countries.

I don't know if it's still the case but certainly in the 1990s, bamboo was used in Taiwan as scaffolding instead of metal, even high up. It's seriously strong stuff.

Yes, it is. Not the same species as that grown in gardens, but the same genus and habits of growth.

https://safewayscaffolding.co.uk/bamboo-scaffolding/

Poison it OP. And I say that as someone who has a very large garden and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve used glyphosate in 20 years - I passionately detest herbicides and the damage they do, but spreading bamboo is an absolute bastard and extremely destructive to native plants and biodiversity as well as property. If you can stop it before it takes hold, then take the opportunity while you still can.

You need to be aware it’s highly unlikely to finish off the mother plant, though, and you’ll need to keep an eye on your boundaries to ensure it doesn’t come creeping through elsewhere.

My MIL’s garden was about 3 or 4 acres. She planted clumping bamboo and forgot about it. A few years later it had thrown out baby clumps about 25m from the original plant. Don’t be too complacent, its definitely trying to take over the world!🤣
fortunately Fil has a digger, it was all dug out and put on a bonfire!

I agree about not being complacent. Reading around, it seems to be at about the 25-30 year point that even clumping bamboo starts to spread and one root can grow 30ft from the main plant. Factor in lots of roots growing 30ft from the main plant and you've got a problem.

I've been dealing with it for three years now, digging and poisoning, and it's still coming up.