Happy Friday to you all, and if it is Friday then that means my thoughts turn to gardening. It is, after all, that time of year for many of us.
In case you’ve been living under a rock and missed the news, I’m into frugal. I’m into cheap. I’m into recycling old items and making them work time and time again in the yard. And today’s topic is about reusing bamboo in the garden.
Last year Bev was out running an errand and she saw a pile of bamboo on the side of the road with a sign that said FREE! Needless to say, she picked it all up. There must have been fifty pieces of bamboo in varying lengths, but most of them were about six feet long.
That was at the end of the summer so we didn’t do anything with it last year except put it in a dry place, but this spring we are ready.
Bamboo makes a great trellis for tomato plants, beans, peas, etc. There are a number of ways to make the trellises….one way is three poles tied together to make a teepee structure.
You can also use three or four poles vertically, then tie off a few horizontally, like in this picture.
Or you can get creative and do it your own special way. All you need is the bamboo and some twine. No pounding nails or screwing screws. We can put one together in a half hour tops, and if you take it down at the end of the growing season and put it somewhere dry, you’ll get three or four years out of it before you have to make a new one.
See if your neighbors have any bamboo growing. I’m sure they will let you have some the next time they trim. The stuff grows like weeds so you shouldn’t have any problem getting some.
That’s it! Have a great weekend and Happy Gardening.
bill
The Art of Living Simple 
Bill, bamboo grows wild and voraciously in my yard. My friends across the street are doing a major overhaul of their front and back yards. Adjacent to their property is an empty wooded lot (directly in front of my house). They want to build a wall of bamboo between the properties. I’ve given them carte blanche to take whatever they want out of my yard. Bamboo serves many purposes and is a sustainable resource. It’s also quite attractive!
Darn it, Sha, I wish I lived there long enough to get some of that bamboo from you. LOL It is attractive and it is free….and that makes it perfect for a frugal gardener like me. 🙂 Have a great weekend my friend.
Shoot, Bill! This is probably the only time you wished you live in Florida! 🙂 Some of the bamboo that is on my neighbor’s side of the fence is as tall as my house and is growing in clumps. He hates it. I’m sure he’d love for you to dig some up. Although, if you don’t catch them when they’re young they grow intensely deep, strong root systems. My neighbors are grabbing mine while they’re still young. Many of the bamboo shoots are growing in and around my pineapple plants. BTW, two of my 12 pineapple plants are bearing fruit already!
No doubt about it, Sha, and this is probably the only time you’ll hear me say that about Florida. 🙂 Bamboo can take over an area if you let it, as I’m sure you know. We had some when I was a kid and it would grow twenty feet in a summer. It was my job to cut it down each fall. I wish I had those stalks now.
Wow! this was really enlightening Bill
You have done an exceptional job with your yard as you put up those sturdy sticks for support.
Your yield will be sweet as you enjoy the bounties of nature!
Have a good weekend 🙂
Ruchira, that is the hope. We will see in a few months.
Have a wonderful weekend my friend.
Can’t wait to start my garden again this year. Good post.
Thank you Lisa! I’m heading out right now to build a couple bamboo trellises. 🙂 Happy gardening to you!
How very resourceful, Bill! Thanks for the tips that any gardener would appreciate.
Thank you Christy. When you are cheap like me, being resourceful is easy. 🙂