In article ,
Alan Silverman wrote:

I've uploaded pictures of my bamboo. Can anyone tell me what type it
is? It’s probably 25 foot tall now and an inch and a half thick, but it
gets to least 30-40 foot tall and two inches thick.

I live in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. This patch is around 15
years old. Maybe 150' long and 60' wide at the widest. It seems much
more vigorous recently. Maybe because we literally didn’t get winter
last year (global warming?) Now I think it’s time to limit its spread.


It's July and I'm getting small leaves sprouting in the lawn, in lines
up to 20-25 feet from the patch. I've thought about severing the roots
and then mowing them. Or should I just mow them down? I’ve added a
picture of the sprouts in the lawn.

On three sides of the patch there’s lawn or field. If mowing alone
keeps them in check then limiting the patches spread should be fairly
easy.

Mowing works perfectly well, and is easy.

On the fourth side, around thirty feet from the edge of the patch
is a stone wall of the old New England variety. Lots of rocks piled on
top of each other. The rock walls/pile of rocks is quite wide in some
parts, probably 10-15 feet wide. I've thought about just letting the
patch grow to the walls. Will the wall contain it?

No - either keep the 30 feet mown, which should hold it back, or you
have to get into root barriers (expensive and/or laborious - mowing is
easier.)

This is out in the
country with the nearest house several hundred feet away, but I want to
be responsible about not allowing it to get onto neighbor’s property.

Good bamboo control makes good neighbors. Right neighborly of you.

The land is very rocky. I was thinking of getting a tool to slice off
the roots underground. What would accomplish this most easily? I was
thinking of going up to $125 for such a tool, but if there are electric
or gas driven tools that might do the job better, I'm curious about them
too. I'm 65 years old and working with the bamboo isn’t going to get
any easier physically.

A lawn edger, but they are not fond of rocks, and mowing works.

A sharp spade also works to cut roots.

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