Bamboos

I've heard many a prejudice against running bamboo, which has led to the general public (at least around the US) thinking that all bamboos are invasive, destructive and very difficult to get rid of. The thing is, we want bamboo to flourish on our land...and for the places we don't want to have it growing can easily have a barrier dug into the ground to keep the running bamboo from spreading, not to mention we'll be walking all over the land stamping out unwanted shoots. Running bamboos can create a beautiful wall as well as sufficient shade, and clumping bamboo grows even faster than running bamboo, which will easily create shade, firewood and even food. Thankfully for us, clumping bamboo does not spread away from where it was originally planted and merely spreads out into a thick clumping plant.

This is a perfect example of clumping bamboo:

 Clumping bamboo can also be used to create walls.
Here is an example of running bamboo:

Running bamboo is perfect for having a low budget and wanting to have a lot of bamboo just about everywhere. 

Bamboo can be harvested after about 2 or 3 years of being planted, because you want mature, strong culms to be able to support the structure you're trying to build. We're looking into both thick and thin bamboo, to give us a variety of sizes and thickness to build with. With clumping bamboo, we can cut the new bamboo shoots from their rhizomes, cook them and eat them. You can cook with running bamboo, but the shoots are harder to get at than with clumping, because the part you want is going to be further underground, where as clumping is right beneath the surface and above.

Stewart and I were watching Myth Busters not too long ago and saw an episode about how the Chinese used bamboo as a torture weapon. Basically the myth was to see if bamboo could grow through a human body, and after just a day the bamboo had grown from its tiny shoot to getting the tip into the back of the fake body they were using for the test. After about a week the bamboo had grown right through the body. Talk about tough plants! What I'm getting at, is, bamboo grows really fast! It can grow its full height in just one season, and can even grow up to three feet or more in one day, depending on your type of bamboo.

While bamboo gives us the options of food, fuel and timber, it can also be turned into paper, musical instruments, tools/weapons, decoration...it even has medical uses. It makes me wonder why America hasn't gotten more into bamboo. The East seems to have it down. With just bamboo, we could be completely self-sustainable. Build a house and all your furniture out of bamboo!