Taming the Black Bamboo

We have a small grove of black bamboo planted in our back yard, and while its not completely taking over everything it does need a bit of maintenance to keep it in line. We planted it about five years ago to try and block the neighbor’s tree house that looms over the fence above the yard.

black bamboo grove

This afternoon I started thinning it out – the picture above is an ‘after’ picture, although I’m not done yet – I still need to thin out the middle where its most dense. You can’t tell easily from this picture, but the canes are at least 15 feet high. I’ve got a few ideas about what to do with the ones I’m thinning out, but first I’ll need to strip the shoots off the sides and chop them down to a smaller size.

Pile of bamboo that I cut from the grove

In the past I’ve used the canes for garden stakes and plant trellises, and last year we made neat marshmallow roasting sticks for the kids by sharpening one end of the cane and painting the other end a fun color with each kid’s name on it. I’ll probably do that again, but there are so many canes that I’ll be able to do some more with them as well.

black bamboo detail