Bamboo Control in Your Garden

Bamboos are typically fast-growing perennials. The woody stems, known at culms, are usually hollow between the nodes and grow in branching clusters thick underground rhizomes. 

To stop bamboo spreading uncontrollably, plant bamboo pieces for your screen or hedge in a trench lined on either side with sheet metal or hardboard. The barrier need not go deeper than about 45cm as bamboos are shallow rooted but may spread naturally by underground stems or rhizomes.

To help control bamboo that has got out of hand, cut the canes down to ground level, and spray them with a strong solution of Zero. Any suckers which emerge later should be similarly treated, but be careful not to let the spray drift onto other plants.

To minimise problems with bamboo, choose varieties of bamboo that are clumping rather than spreading.