I have recently moved into a new house and the garden has several bamboo plants. Whilst these plants are great as they provided a good screen for privacy, they are taking over the garden. I have been advised to dig up the bamboo and plant in pots. Can anyone advise the best way to do this ?

With a mechanical digger.

Another way to do it, if you don't want to keep it, is to find out what kind you have, and if it is a desirable, people will be pleased to come and take it away in exchange for the labour of removing it. If it is really special, they'll pay for the privilege. All you have to do is advertise in a way to communicate with that kind of person.

Either way, I think you need to find out what kind of bamboo you have, as not all types are very well suited to pot culture. This reference is quite good on what grows well in pots, though it isn't complete. http://www.mjbanks.co.uk/homepage.htm

Also digging them out you will damage a lot of roots, and in particular lose the finer roots, so the plant will no longer be able to support all the nice big culms (ie canes) you dug out with it, so you'll have to thin them out. The plant may also revert to juvenilism as a result of the shock, ie, new culms would be small and thin for a few years.

Pot culture bamboos require a lot of watering as they are thirsty plants and don't like drying out. Also they tend to fill up their pots quickly, and need splitting and repotting every 2-3 years. So they require a lot more work than bamboo in the ground.

If you are in a taking over the garden situation, you probably won't take out all the rhizomes, anywhere near, when you try to dig them up, so they'll all come back up again next year. And when they come up, probably instead of a few big shoots you'll get lots and lots of smaller ones. So you may be making things worse. If some kind (not) former owner has put in Sasa palmata or some other such thug, the honest evaluation is that you'll never be rid of it.

So maybe the lower labour approach is simply to cut down the culms and emerging shoots you don't want, and confine them to where you want them. They usually only shoot during a short period of the year, so it isn't usually a big job. If you do this regularly, many kinds of bamboo will eventually stop growing in the area you don't want them, because they need the nutrition the leaves give them.

I know what you mean, I had terrible trouble trying to move a massive bamboo from the corner of my garden...had to wrestle it out of the ground!

well all professionals landscapers used plastic root barrier for trees and bamboos. you will need 60+cm deep. 1mm . leave one inch out of the ground the rest in the ground.

you can buy the right length it is called root barrier/ root control:

http://www.best4garden.co.uk/shop/page/15?shop_param=

It is well known situation - so they can provide more info

Plastic root bearer is the best option to carry these bamboo towards to their new home, by growing other bamboo plants, it will take a lamp sum time.

digging up bamboo needs effort.. specially if the bamboo is old enough ...i agree on ofer's suggestions..