Growing Bamboo in the Garden

Bamboo

Growing bamboo can be a good choice in a garden, as long as the plants are not left unchecked or allowed to become invasive. When treated correctly, bamboo can be a useful crop. Some bamboos do actually offer a delicious, edible crop in the form of fresh shoots in the spring, while others are grown not only for their edible shoots but also for their sturdy canes, which can be used in a broad range of ways to enhance your garden. Bamboo can also be grown as an ornamental, as shade cover or to create a partition in your garden to screen a seating area or, for example, your compost heap or bins.


Bamboo structure

Bamboo, either growing or cut and used to make a trellis, can also provide a wonderful way to screen an ugly wall or fence and can provide a structure up which climbing plants can grow. Some people worry about how out of control and invasive bamboo can become, but this is extremely unlikely to happen when bamboo is harvested for its canes. When treated as a crop, it is easy to keep bamboo within bounds.

Bamboo bean poles

Bamboo canes have a number of different uses. They can be used to create a wide range of garden structures including simple support canes for broad beans and other crops, tipis for runner beans, trellis for climbing plants as well as more complex structures for arbours, or shaded garden seating areas up which plants can climb. The opportunities to make vertical gardens with bamboo canes are almost endless and your imagination is really the only limit.


Bamboo blinds

Bamboo canes can also be used for more than just supporting plants and creating simple garden structures. They can be used to create fences or screens, window blinds are just one of the applications for thinner bamboo canes indoors, while offcuts could be used laced together to make place mats and coasters, as well as a whole range of other crafty items.


Do not be put off growing bamboo by its reputation for out of control growth – just control it by harvesting it regularly. You will always be able to find many and varied uses for this most useful and versatile of crops. Check out the article on choosing a bamboo variety to see which option might be the right one for you.