Bamboo, the Wiley, Impervious and Destructive Weed

Matthew Rose wrote a piece about fighting bamboo in today's WSJ. Had me laughing outloud as I sat on a stool at the cafe watching cars drive by in the cold. The story follows the many ways people try to foil the bamboo plant.

Specifically, the running bamboo that is almost impervious to being destroyed. One guy tried putting in plastic sheeting to block the bamboo from moving. First 40 mil plastic, BAM, it grows right through, then he tries 60, and finally 80 mil plastic, 1/12th of an inch thick, is the only one that can keep it from piercing it like a spear.

"The only thing that works is cut it down, cut it down, cut it down," said a Maryland man who planted it in his yard. There was another guy in the story who said he dug a 50' trench and put in metal flashing, like you'd use on a roof. Still the bamboo snaked its way down and underneath.

A suggestion made was to hire a pack of pandas to eat it. A guy tried to put bamboo into a chipper he'd rented. the nearly indestructable plant wrapped itself around the coils, he had to rent a trailer to haul the debris to the dump instead.