I received an email from a friend last week regarding my search for bamboo. Her significant other, Scott, owner & operator of  “Chomp’n Grass Landscape Design & Maintenance” (772- 209-1729), had a line on some bamboo for me. He called me the next day, and we arranged to meet Friday morning. Scott is the guy that I call when I’ve let my yard go to the point of “pay someone or light a match”. He’s trimmed my trees, cut my “hay” (overgrown weeds in the back I refused to cut – I’m a BAD neighbor sometimes), and done it all without losing any of the 50+ chickens, ducks, quail and rabbits I have in the back yard. Nice! And if I hire him, you KNOW his prices are reasonable (yes, I just admitted I’m frugal).

On with the story…

One of Scott’s clients has a large amount of thinner clump bamboo overgrowing her yard, to the point that he must regularly cut it back, just to maintain access to the yard and pool, and he arranged to allow me to get some of it on his next trip over.

Here was the view as I approached the back yard (that’s a 6 foot fence):

He spent about 30 minutes trimming bamboo off of the house as I stacked it. As we worked he told me that when it would rain, the water weight would cause the bamboo to droop down over the yard, covering most of the yard, and making getting into the yard almost impossible. He went on to say that as it dried, it would stand back up, but it always looked alarming when he would see it.

As we stacked it up, I quickly realized I would be needing a larger truck if he kept on cutting! But being the resourceful Hillbilly that I am, I knew I’d make it home with my load of bamboo somehow.

As I stacked it, I found my truck be just wasn’t long enough, even with the bases of the poles running into my back window all the way to my windshield. Some of the bamboo was over 10 feet past the end of the truck!

With no other option, I trimmed off each pole just past the end of the truck bed, and brought the tops up into the bed as well. I couldn’t leave any scraps, I was here to help clean up the yard, not get bamboo for my own plans of world conquest. That was just a lucky benefit. So I cleaned it all up, not wanting to waste a leave – if nothing else it would make good ground cover and/or mulch. Plus I wanted to try propagating some from the cuttings.

Here I am, ready to head to the house:

Using back roads, I drove it all home, unloaded it, and proceeded to remove the limbs from each pole. (I’m still working on that, a little more each night as I have time.) As I top each pole, or come across a large limb, I cut it at an angle and place it into either potting soil, or in a mulched spot that get regular watering, in an effort to get some to take root. So far no luck, but I’m hopeful.
I now have enough poles for all of my tomato plants, as well as some left over for future projects. My older daughter (12) wants it in her room covering her walls. The younger one wants a divider wall made out of it. I want to dry some to try another shot at that damned bamboo fire saw. The wife just rolls her eyes at all three of us.

Scott just thinks I’m a little odd, but was happy to oblige. He’s a great guy to get done what is needed, and I promised to put in a good word for him for his efforts in helping me. I’m not one to sell out for love or money, so in saying he’s a good guy, know that he is. Give him a call if you need any yard work done. 772- 209-1729