On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 15:34:22 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Burgess
wrote:

Here's a short story that appeared on a mailing list I subscribe to
that I thought would be of interest:

I love bamboo and I plant it everywhere it I can and places I probably
shouldn't, like next to this pond I built 2 years ago. I dug out a hole,
built up the berms down slope with some dirt I got from digging out a
basement, then lined it with a piece of EPDM I scrounged from a roofer
friend. I'd planted the bamboo near there two years earlier and it was just
starting to get a foothold. I was so proud of my bamboo overhanging the
pond; it looked so Zen. I don't know if you've ever destructively tested
EPDM, but you can't tear it, and it's tough as nails. Well, (you know
what's coming) the bamboo poked up a shoot right through it the next spring
but it died, then (I'm theorizing now) rotted and last week the pond drained
itself out just like someone unstopped a drain plug. I never thought this
would happen. Now I'm in the pond-patching business. Live and learn.


We had bamboo in our yard in our last house. It was there when we
bought the house, and I thought it was beautiful. Well...
It was the invasive type, and it spread like wildfire. I never really
did succeed at controling it. I've been told that you can dig a trench
around it about a foot deep and a foot wide, and that will
successfully stop it, which I believe, since the runners are very
shallow. However by the time I learned of this method, more than 25%
of my yard was covered. I was convinced that one day I was going to go
into the basement, and there would be a 6 foot bamboo stalk growing up
through my foundation! So we moved. (Only kidding... sort of)
Seriously, there is a very informative site at http://www.bamboo.org/
that had some good tips for anyone who wants to grow or contain it.

Cheers
Laura