Projo Garden Blog

The large images are resizable now, with scrollbars, and tools.

Established bamboo. Click most photos to enlarge them.
 

Years ago, I met an elderly man who had a really nice bamboo grove.

I bought some canes for trellises and dug up some of his plants and replanted them at my house.

I thought I could contain them in a neat little row. Today I have a patch of my own in my back yard, not a neat little row (shown above).

It is hard to contain certain types of bamboo, so don’t grow it if you don’t have the room for it to expand, as it is hard to control.

However, it does create a unique environment and usually lasts well through the winter.

If space is an issue, look for bamboo raised specifically to be grown in pots.

Bamboo as garden fencing, above. (Click to enlarge.)

Bamboo is said to have 1,400 uses.

Over the years, I have found a number of them, such as fences, tomato cages, trellises for climbers such as pole beans, tomatoes, cukes and morning glories, below.

The trellis is between the morning glories and the building but, to show what it looks like, I've superimposed a drawing of the trellis on the leaves.

I usually lash the poles together with jute twine. Jute is not permanent, but will easily last a season or two. The birds make nests out of the remnants. If arthritis or finger agility is an issue, try the plastic loops used to keep wires in order. They work well too.
Check the video at this link at Fine Gardening magazine to see how others lash bamboo together for an appealing Eastern look.

Bamboo is very attractive and is easy to cut with lopers or a saw, and is surprisingly strong.

The decorative garden gate shown below was made with smaller stalks with the tops trimmed off. The tops are gathered together to make the decoration for the front.

I’ve included a couple of drawings at the bottom of this page explaining how to make two types of trellises. The tripod style is good to grow pole beans or cukes as the vegetables are able to be picked from two sides. I grow climbing flowers on the upright style of trellis that works nicely for flowers against a wall, such as clematis or morning glories.

Box-like trellises work well for tomato cages. Click photo to enlarge it.

If you want to make a trellis, check out the printable files below. I hope they help.

We now have two uses for bamboo. Only 1,398 to go.

Click these drawings for larger, printable versions.

Comments

karen anne said:

Hi,

When I clicked on the drawings, they came up in windows that couldn't be expanded or scrolled, so only a portion of the drawing could be seen.

Lovely morning glories, wow, from the scale of the bench, bamboo must be huge.

Sorry about that, karen anne. That's a default page, a template we can't change. I did manually enable scrollbars and resizablility and tools. sheila

Link | October 20, 2007 12:08 AM
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Sunflowerocity said:

Wow! good stuff! see also: How to Build a Sunflower Stalk Trellis

Link | October 20, 2007 5:12 PM
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Beth Heaney said:

Dave, the drawings are great. I just printed them out. I think I'll make a bamboo arbor intead of a cedar one next to the new patio. You timing on this is perfect for me. Is that bamboo growing in your yard the kind that's 1" or so thick and is that the best thickness for someone like me to use for an arbor? What do you suggest? I'm also curious about whether it is green when you cut it and if so, how long it takes before it turns that yellow color. And if it is more flexible when it is green...
Beth-
One inch is about right. I use the yellow gold one because they seem to be firmer. The green ones are more flexible. Experiment a bit. If you need some to try, let me know.
Dave

Link | October 23, 2007 8:22 AM
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Pool fence said:

i loved the idea.

Link | June 24, 2008 6:15 PM
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