Bamboo Triumphant

Last year I undertook a bamboo eradication effort after my clump of black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) escaped its small, isolated bed between the house and the alley, finding its way through 10 feet / 3m of compressed gravel, cement, retaining walls, building foundation, and pavers, and starting to overrun the shady driveway border. The effort took a pickaxe and dozens of hours of labor, with me digging down 4 feet / 1.33m and rooting out dozens of thick, ropy rhizomes. Despite this effort, I missed a bit and a seven-cane clump of bamboo sprang back last summer and grew to nearly twice the height of the house. I undertook a second effort and removed that as well, locating it to another spot in the yard. I thought I was finally done, but no. Nooooooo:

The seemingly peaceful, unsuspecting, and black-bamboo-free shady driveway border, which last year was overrun with unwanted black bamboo shoots:

 

And lurking behind it, a huge 2" / 5cm wide shoot has pushed its way up through the retaining wall! It grew to this height in about four days. I first noticed it after it knocked over a potted plant in the process of emerging. Behind the shoots is a heavy piece of cement which the shoot just brushed aside.  







At the base of the retaining wall is a small area in pavers where I access the hose bib and sometimes store potted plants. Two more equally large shoots have pushed aside a few pavers. There are a few other lumps in the paved area, so I suspect more bamboo drama awaits.

More pickaxe work is clearly in my near future. Alas.



Transplanting Bamboo: Part 1

I have had a clump of black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) growing along my driveway. The foundation of the house and the hard-packed gravel of the driveway keep it in check for several years, but it eventually escaped. After creeping into a garden space with better soil and water, its roots quickly took over. I spend a day eradicating the roots and installing permanent barriers. However, I must have missed a root. A year ago seven enormous purple shoots erupted from the surface. They were so huge and perfect I couldn't bear to destroy them, so I let them grow for a season. the result was a 25 foot (7.6 m) stand of magnificent canes. The picture is a bit spoiled by the angle and the bright sunshine, but it's clear the bamboo is twice as tall as the house:

Unfortunately this shaded a lot of indoor space. Also, this clump acted as a new node of contagion and quickly sent runners through the bed. It had to go. I dug and pruned roots for about an hour until I liberated most of the root ball:

I dismantled part of the retaining all around the bed and dragged the offending clump back to the parking area by myself somehow, although it was a beast. The propane tank is a standard 5 gallon (18.9 L) tank for scale:

Lying on its side, the clump is longer than my house is wide:

Although I was able to drag the clump from its bed by myself, getting it uphill and maneuvered into its new location required four people. Pictures to follow in Part 2. And there are still rhizomes to dig up and eradicate...

First Hummingbird Nest of the Season

Anna's hummingbirds are year round residents in my yard. I usually notice a few nests each spring and sometimes the breed sometimes as early as December. Often the nests are in surprisingly exposed locations as in this case, perched where a bamboo stem meets and overlapping leaf from another stem. The location is just above a path and quite exposed to wind and rain. The nest here is in its second day of construction and I was able to observe the builder gathering moss and lichens on a nearby locust tree:

As a side note, the bamboo is Hibanobambusa tranquilans 'Shiroshima' and is beset by bamboo mites. The damage is visible as the blocky tan patches in the leaf in the lower left foreground.