Bruce from Seattle Bamboo writing here. Our motto is "we solve bamboo problems' and have almost two decades of dealing with these problems. We suggest that 90% of the problems we solve are barrier problems. The bamboo is not "contained" by plastic barrier, in contract we suggest it is confined. Confined when its basic nature is to travel and spread. This particular installation has numerous problems and the DIY fellow seems to have not studied bamboo before this video was shot. First, bamboo does need resources - he mentions moisture and nutrients and this is very true, though ignoring the fact that bamboo needs space. As it grows and matures and depending on variety may seek acreage. Space is an essential resource the bamboo requires. Second the barrier is not wide enough to maintain the planting. There must be at least a foot of space between the planting and the barrier to dig the the rhizomes that will begin to travel around the around the perimeter. This maintenance is distinctly present in the American Bamboo Society website if you search for it. Third the overlap is a place the rhizomes can discover and thereby escape. The major problem is that there is little or no soil in the overlap space and the bamboo rhizomes may travel downward as they grow. A fourth issue is that the end of the planting is very near the fence and will make it difficult to maintain in the near future. "Barriered" bamboo (confined) has a "shelf life" just as it does in a container. Essentially the plastic barrier is a container without a bottom which addresses a fifth problem. As the rhizomes travel around the perimeter they eventually find a way to go under the plastic. This requires deep digging and staging of soil before the robustly growing rhizomes can be located and extracted. studio.kzfaq.infozeNmOM3pTek/edit The bottom line is that any barrier is confinement of a plant that needs to spread to stay healthy. This confinement is a future issue for the property owner and more often than not the property owner that proceeds the person who planted it.

Job well done. You need to leave a bit of the barrier above ground anyways because the rhizomes can climb over the top. The barriers work great. I contained a running bamboo with this method just fine.

I planted Fargesia Robusta Campbell 3 years ago and have had no problems with it spreading as it is a clumping bamboo. I did my research before I bought this as I also didn’t want it spreading everywhere. Thanks for the video. 👍

Clumping varieties worth mentioning I have them minimal spread .

Great job Stuart, I'm really looking forward to how you jungle garden develops. I usually find 'lost' items when I'm looking for something else!😂

Thanks Stuart, I might try this idea for a couple of figs that are not thriving in pots. Agree with you about the Roughneck post holder, its worth every penny.

Always good to watch Stewart well done looks great, cant wait for the next one.

Smashing video with super advice about basically pacing yourself, especially if your not as young as you think you are.

Looks like a lovely spot to build a swinging garden seat, potential future project!

I think running bamboo has gave clumping bamboo a bad name due to people's lack of research before planting in the garden. Great vedio

Hi Stuart at first I was totally bamboozled 😂 then everything became clear Kind regards as always. 😀👍👍👍

Excellent as always Stuart 👍😁

Thanks for the video. You're very lucky to have top soil going so deep. Here in Essex 200mm down and I'm hitting east London orange clay.

Ive got a 12" wide, 30 foot long bamboo hedge along my fence and is a good privacy screen without being a light thief. Beautiful and maintenance free. The bonus is that the plastic screening like youre using stopped the problem of extremely unwelcome guests tunnelling in from the field on the other side, maybe the rootmass itself would have sufficed. (Then I saw gnaw marks in the fence so ran chicken wire along the bottom of the fence. That stopped the little barstools. Sorry if this has put you off your lunch.) When digging, put the soil straight into rubble sacks for easy transportation. I adverised "free top soil" online and someone came for it within an hour. My mistake as it turned out cuz you'll always find a use for it elsewhere.

How likable are you? Thanks for the entertaining and informative video.

Given me some inspiration. We have the same issue with our bamboo!

Thanks for a very informative video...I want bamboo in my yard, too...am building some Planter boxes...as I am fearful of its aggressive nature! But I really wanted to say I greatly appreciate your humor! Made me laugh out loud...and that's priceless!

Thanks Stuart.

A grubbing mattock is an excellent tool for cutting accurate channels. Also as you get into well-compacted soils a fencing bar is great for breaking up the soil before you dig it out

Great video, Thank you 😊

Wow! Great job Stuart, I think the hard work will pay off. Bamboo is a beautiful plant. We inherited one at our previous house which had no barrier and completely took over despite my best efforts to control it. I like the way you dug the trench with the fencing tools - using an ordinary spade doesn’t work for me as, at 8 stone 4, I stand on a spade and nothing happens! 😂

I enjoyed. Thanks 😊

Thanks so much for the tuos on the tools. I hust dudg a 120 cm deep hole 40 cm ub diameter for a flagpole. Woulr have been impossible without these digging tools.

The bamboo shoots spread like wildfire, even an off cut piece ends up in the lawn and starts to spawn!

great job

Looking good Stuart, and the garden! It's that time of year mid spring, I love it.I am building a second rockery with sand stone.I do like bamboo, like you say you got to manage it or it can get out control. I'm looking forward to see how you get on with it.And like you said with putting things down, where are they now! that's me I'm 50 something as well.Great video,take care see you on the next one.

That is really a smart way to dig a trench. Thank you.

I use the roughneck post holer for loads of planting. We did about 2000 spring bulbs with it last year - me holing and the wife following along.

Great video

For my screening bamboo, I've just planted Fargesia Robusta Formidable - Fountain Bamboo Formidable

That post digging tool is the 30 quid I have ever spent. I have just completed quite a large decking project that required 75 post holes. I dread to think how difficult it would have been without that tool. Highly recommended 👌 👍 👏

Nice to see someone else doing the work digging as I did a few days ago. Damn, I was breating hard after just a few minutes and I’m only 72…..argggg. Good subject. I did the same but did’nt go deep enough. Thanks

Electric post digger does wonders quickly!

You're the best!

Wonderful video with great information. Did you know that the dirt you have extra out of the hole is due to the moon phases. You can also dig that same hole different phase then come back the next day and will not have enough dirt to fill the hole. Try an experiment. I had to do it myself before I would believe it made that much difference

Weird, I did this job today & now I see your video. Pretty sure it was easier for me to dig the whole area out with a fork than it looked for you with that post hole digger. Worth pointing out there are two types of bamboo, clumpers & runners, still it's worth having this barrier with either so you can be sure it stays where you want it.

I’ve just done this exact same job today, albeit on a retrospective basis to curtail any more runners popping up where I don’t want them.

Advice from a friend who is a bamboo grower with 200+ species... Never put in a root barrier without clamping both ends together!! When the rhizome has filled out the space, the lack or pressure keeping the material together gives the rhizome enough room to be able to push the barrier outward until a hole is made through which it can send runners... If you have experienced otherwise with a plant that is in the ground more than 5-6 years I would love to know, but it didn't sound like a solid longterm solution to my mate

I love the look of bamboo but having just removed 16 tonnes of soil in order to remove it from our lawn, you could say I’m no longer a fan. That’s really down to the previous owner of the house not having planted it with a bamboo barrier. They’ve cost me around £3k to get it sorted 😢😅

My neighbours have bamboo and it comes to my garden. It came under the fence somehow 😂 now i have bamboo too😂

I never would have thought to use a post hole digger to make a narrow trench like that.

Speaking as a self employed gardener, I'd have planted pretty much any hedging rather than bamboo. It's a nightmare, and that plastic won't stop it forever.

Nice one Stuart, it looks better already ! The other thing that starts at 50 is you start muttering to yourself about what is winding you up ! 😉

Hmmm now I wonder if you can sink a bottomless planter pot into the ground and put the bamboo in that

Greta ideas. Would love to see an update.

A lot of work but looks great! 👍😃

Brilliant video and great advice but when you going to fix your fence lol can’t let the bamboo hide it 😅

Hi , nice video well done 👍. Just want to ask you , if I plant the bamboo away from my neighbours fence something around 600mm/700mm away from the fence , do I still need use plastic barrier ?? Thanks

Can you do a follow up video on your jungle garden?

Follow up review of the liner in 5 years when the pandas have moved in 😂

Hi I’m thinking of buying the Vaunt wheel barrow you have used in this video. Would you recommend the product having used it to complete your various projects?

Will the plastic split under the pressure exerted by the expanding root system?

I have just done you a solid.😊

Thats quite a workout. Wont the roots go deep and then send out shoots sideways below the black liner?

Is this necessary to do for clamping bamboo robusta?

Love my bamboo, especially black bamboo. Any thoughts on motorised barrows/skipfillers? - i'm just getting to an age where my joints are telling me it would be a sound investment!!! ps. walking around looking for my tape measure with it in my hand.

Hey Stuart, completely unrelated question: Doing some posts at the weekend and for marking out I seem to remember you had a paintspray tool for marking holes in brickwork for drilling. What was the one you were using? Was ages ago, so can't remember which video. Do you have an Amazon store or links page for all the tools you use? Cheers!

Mmmmmmm. Think I’ll just buy bigger pots.

I am with you on the hand trowels they just dissappear, we buy new ones each year and they seem to evaporate into the garden.

It does need securing. Those rhizomes will start circling the perimeter of the plastic, and as soon as the sharp apex finds that seam it will grow in between the plastic sheets and out into the yard.

Without the post digging tools that you used, digging a trench is a hard and fiddly job. Despite the size, digging out most of the hole may be quicker (possibly easier) if you only have a regular type spade.

Have you seen an advert for an electricity saving device called "voltex" in which you appear as it's inventor?

Buy a clumping variety. Stick it in a planter. Put planter on raised concrete base.

11:55 lol, my life.

Am going to plant bamboo in 42 litre plastic buckets and put them in raised flower beds in hope that it controls the evasive nature & provides a decent screen.

How’s it doing now?

That bamboo looks like mine, the clumping type no runners. Mine has been in 8 years and hasn’t spread more than half a metre. I had the runner type in a previous property and it found it’s way all under the lawn.

That planting space will be full of bamboo within two years. You'll then have to dig it all out and divide and start again. People always get caught out by how fast bamboos grow. The growth compounds, the root mass doubles every year, the number of culms at least double every year. Those plastic barriers don't last forever, they degrade, and because it's undergound you can't see if rhizomes have broken through. By the time you do notice, it's too late. Don't underestimate the strength of bamboo roots, they are more than capable of breaking these plastic barriers. As the comment below says...if you must have running bamboos then allow at least one foot of space between the final size that you want the bamboo to grow to and the barrier. Then, dig out that one foot space every year and get out any rhizomes, so in effect you're using the barrier as a failsafe rather than as first defense. Even then, you're going to have to be lifting and dividing your bamboos every 2 or 3 years to keep them healthy. Much better to stick to clumping bamboos, and give them room to grow. Fargesias typically grow 2m to 4m tall, and form a clump 1m to 2m wide. Varieties like Fargesia Robusta Campbell, Fargesia Winter Joy, and Fargesia Rufa are ideal for our climate, they're much nicer looking bamboos than running bamboos, and you don't have all this hard work of trying to contain them.

Hi Stewart. Just letting you know that I saw a KZfaq video advert today that played before a video I was watching that advertised a plug in device claiming to save electricity. It contained footage from one of your proper DIY videos of you and was suggesting that you were an English electrician and inventor of this device. It was for a company called volt max. I wasn’t able to replay it so didn’t get more detail. It looked very suspect and might be worth looking out for!

Mini digger might be overkill - how about a motorised auger ?

With all that soil excavated to a deep level, mightn't it be an idea to put some compost or chicken manure at that depth before returning the soil into the void? Also, I'd be concnerned if your missus went missing and you had the polis interested in that coffin-shaped area! :-)

I've heard Panda's work well

buy a non-invasive clumping variety as opposed to bamboo known as "runners"

I am surprised you didn't stitch the barrier together correctly to avoid penetration through the joint,

What was the flat item you used pounding the soil to level out?

Please call 811 in the US, nationwide to ask all the local utilities to come mark their locations BEFORE you dig. It is the law, and fines for not doing so start at $1000 first offense around here.

I’m a big fan of those roughneck tools for posts and trenches but don’t understand why you didn’t dig a big hole with a pick and shovel as it would have been quicker.

Doesn't have anything to do with being over 50 Stuart, I never find my trowels either. Or pruning scissor but when I look for those, you bet I'll find the trowels! Nice start to the jungle area!

Did you know your being used in an ad on you tube as the inventor of voltmax ?

how are you sir..? thank you so much for sharing.

😂😂😂 thinking that a tiny sheet of Plastic will stop bamboo is quite funny

I'm afraid that plastic barrier will not stop bamboo. It will spread and if you have neighbours nearby they will be cursing you. The house I bought had bamboo in the garden and it grew up through a summer house floor and through my neighbour's garage floor. Plastic is no match for it sadly. Dig it up !!!

Great video and advice, although I must say I don't know if that plastic will be sufficient to contain bamboo in the long term. I think I'd at least want to use a double layer. Bamboo can be seriously invasive and it can be backbreaking work to remove it from unwanted areas.

I had a bamboo problem, I found that by routinely cutting the canes back to ground level, within a year, the bamboo was exhausted and gave up the ghost. Getting the dead plant out was a bigger issue.

How can I stop weeds when panting a flower bed

Seeing as roots only go about 700mm deep it doesnt make sense that the ground would provide nutrients that a planter/pot wouldnt provide. It is only going to use so much depth regardless (same soil)

Bamdoo will grow very well in pots BUT YOU HAVE TO FEED IT!

👍

That root barrier looks pretty thick but as others have mentioned it may not last. Living here in Japan next to a bamboo forest I have bamboo (Take- pronounced Takay) which grows to around 20 metres, with a diameter of around 6-8 inches. Grows incredibly quickly, up to 120 cms a day, Yes a day! I have seen the rhizomes go through any weakness even concrete cracks and recently dug up roots as thick as your wrist. They dont go very deep as Stuart said luckily. Plant bamboo if you wish but keep an eye on them as they can easily get out of hand :)

buy the clumping variety, which doesn't spread

Stuart, parts of one of your video are being used to sell a gadget that is supposed to improve your electric use - Not sure if you know -It was a you tube advert

The previous owners of a house i lived in had screened the side of a she with bamboo. That stuff was popping up out of the ground metres away. Nightmare

Plant a clumping variety rather than a running one. No problem then.

Overlapping alone does npt the job. The Rhizomes will push through it after some years..

👍🙏

It's a little known fact, but the rings of Saturn are comprised of lost trowels...

You could have chosen clumping bamboo, which does not run, and have saved yourself all that work, and potential future disaster.

12:20 O, no, this happens to me as well, and has been for years, and I'm not quite 50 yet... Best solution: ask your wife, she'll find them just by rolling with her eyes and walking straight over to wherever they are!

Why u ant close to the house and fence what if u get so old u can't maintain it

The 'Comments' maybe missing a point here. Perhaps the channel is setting up what seems to be needed, a 'how to remove bamboo' video in the future. 😊😊