So what did you block with your bamboo?

[moriphen]

Quite a few of us starting out planting bamboo due to our neighbors, be they a rowdy house, a floodlight gone wrong or a highway that has gotten to loud. I'd like to hear what made you choose bamboo and how its worked out since then.

I'll start for me bamboo became a option when the neighbor passed away and the economy collapsed in 2009. The house sat for a year(2007-2008) and the family did the least they could to sell and maintain the home. By the time it sold the home was an eyesore and the new neighbors where not much better, several unattended bonfires followed by 2 police calls for "domestic issues" and finally I decided to plant bamboo.

2011 Shoots:


Next year they should be out of site and hopefully out of mind.

M

[BooManChu]

What kind of boo did you plant
I too wanted a little privacy...
Boo was the quick answer.
Not so much the rowdy neighbor, but it was as though I always felt there were eyes on me...
He's got tinted windows on his screened in slash plexiglass'd porch...
Older couple, in their 70's...
I'm younger, in my 30's...
My firepit activities really make me feel like someones lookin'...
This winter, I ought to be completely blocked. The following one for sure...
The Bambusa Textilis Gracilis and Bambusa Malingensis were my choices for the blocking...

~BMC.

[marcat]

BMC I woluld go with Punting Pole or Ventricosa for a screen. Actually am using Ventricosa at my place even with the drouts it has mostly covered out sider eyes.
MarCat

[BooManChu]

I've got some ventricosa's planted around... I bought a 7gal with like 10 or 15 culms in it... Broke it down, and divided into like four plants...
All came out without a hitch...
They divide, or propagate, whatever you call it... Easy.

The other you mentioned, I'll have to look into.
Thanks.

~BMC.

[BooManChu]

ventricosa = punting pole

~BMC.

[Akumanubis]

My mother

[bamboothew]

I didn't actually plant any bamboo for this purpose but a nice side-effect of my mixed aureosulcata grove is that in a few years I won't have to look at most of my neighbor's all-too-common leyland cypress screen. I am screening his screen

[marcat]

Matthew that is down right beautiful
MarCat

[bamboothew]

Matthew that is down right beautiful
MarCat

Well, it will be in about 5-7 years

[zxylene]

Any others? I will post mine sometime soon. My neighbor planted bamboo when they found out some was planning on building in our wooded land they thought we were going to build on the back lot which they would be able to see from their porch. But we did not build their a few years later the boo is filling in I will take some pics and post soon. I just learned of this story a few weeks ago talking to the neighbor. I think this is one of my fav subjects on here though as many if not all of us are trying to get privacy. Most of my privacy I want in the winter months so those pics will have to come later.

[Snowbird]

i planted for aesthetics and for privacy in both summer and winter.

the neighbors uphill from me think the carport is a crap-port. all kinds of junk just left out to weather for years until it finally gets thrown away a little at a time when the junk bins get dropped off. this is level with my back deck, which is about 12-15' off the ground. on that side, i have p. nigra 'bory' and 'black', p. dulcis, p. yunzu 'gulaca', p. atrovaginata, p. decora.

behind me i have a 5' block wall and a neighbor that has gatherings frequently. in select spots i have p. bissetti, p. auerosulcata 'spectablis' and p. nuda to fill in between deciduous trees for both summer and winter.

downhill, from me is a backporch that was used frequently by some highschool students to hang out and smoke pot and on occasion meth. this has since stopped as the kids have moved away but we still have p. nigra 'nuda', p. aureosulcata 'yellow groove' and p. aureosulcata 'harbin inversa'.

in raised boxes made from railroad ties, we have P. aureosulcata 'aureocaulis', p rubromarginata, and p. nigra 'henon' to block the blistering west sun. we have about 25' vertical of the house that heats up during the day. by late night it would take until 3am to get the rooms on the other side cool.

[Alan_L]

Snowbird, I'd love to see some photos!

It took me a while to figure out what 'black' dulcis was, until I realized I was reading it wrong.

Also, it's Ph. glauca 'Yunzhu'. How old is your Yunzhu? If more than 4 years or so, has it become more upright with age, or do the culms keep leaning out even when mature?

[Snowbird]

Also, it's Ph. glauca 'Yunzhu'. How old is your Yunzhu? If more than 4 years or so, has it become more upright with age, or do the culms keep leaning out even when mature?

they have been in the ground since may of 2007.

unfortunately, the yunzhu has had a rough life here. my dogs ate a lot of growth off this planting when it was young for a couple seasons. its first year they were my best performers, upsizing to 8' from 3'. currently they are willowy and not mature enough to really tell how upright they will be. both my yunzhu plantings have had a rough time with winter. a couple culms have died back but usually all the leaves are brown before spring.

for now, i'm content to wait and see but it may be one that finds a new home.





btw, i forgot to mention the semiarundinarias out front. they block the same deck the kids were on downhill from me. the fastuosa temple is just stating to shoot and i hope will fill in with the other culms that are currently 13' tall. the 'fall red' in the same location has struggled and nearly dies to the ground every winter.

[Alan]

the walgreens parking lot, where there are a surprising number of domestic disputes (or do most people just yell at each other all the time?)
both images nearly the same view

[pdxsteve]

The heinous monstrosity going in next door. (3,750 square feet on a 40x100 lot.)
P. Vivax and Aureocaulis.