This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Redesigning a garden riddled with bamboo
sarah_close7
Posts: 2
Hi all,
I moved into a house last year with a nice raised patio taking up the back garden. I soon found that the previous owner had planted running bamboo in one of the borders with no control. I cleared all the rhizomes from the borders and dug a trench between the fence to stop it coming back in the neighbours (sadly it has spread to their gardens on both sides!)
I moved into a house last year with a nice raised patio taking up the back garden. I soon found that the previous owner had planted running bamboo in one of the borders with no control. I cleared all the rhizomes from the borders and dug a trench between the fence to stop it coming back in the neighbours (sadly it has spread to their gardens on both sides!)
we also have an outbuilding which we can see is riddled with rhizomes underneath. We plan on knocking this down and digging it up once we can afford to, but have dug a trench between that and the garden in the meantime.
The patio tiles started to rise and after lifting a few up realised the patio was also riddled with thick bamboo shoots. I’ve dug up the patio bamboo and carefully put the slabs back however there were a few sections where it went too deep and I’ve now got a big hole in my patio.
My garden is a mess and I’m at a loss as to what I should do.
Do I relay a patio or will I find myself in the same situation next year?
Do I put down an artificial lawn so I can peel it back to monitor any new bamboo shoots?
How do I stop the bamboo from coming in from the neighbours? Or shall I leave my trench in place?
The patio is raised and accessed by a few steps, I’m not sure why it’s raised so high, it could be hiding something!?
I’ve attached some photos of its current state (please ignore the mess and the sofa which is waiting to go to the tip!) any advise would be really appreciated!
The patio tiles started to rise and after lifting a few up realised the patio was also riddled with thick bamboo shoots. I’ve dug up the patio bamboo and carefully put the slabs back however there were a few sections where it went too deep and I’ve now got a big hole in my patio.
My garden is a mess and I’m at a loss as to what I should do.
Do I relay a patio or will I find myself in the same situation next year?
Do I put down an artificial lawn so I can peel it back to monitor any new bamboo shoots?
How do I stop the bamboo from coming in from the neighbours? Or shall I leave my trench in place?
The patio is raised and accessed by a few steps, I’m not sure why it’s raised so high, it could be hiding something!?
I’ve attached some photos of its current state (please ignore the mess and the sofa which is waiting to go to the tip!) any advise would be really appreciated!
Thanks in advance 
0
Posts
I have to say that's one hell of a problem. I don't have prior experience of dealing with invasive bamboo unfortunately, hopefully someone on the forum will be able to help.
We did have a big problem with big tree roots invading our vegetable patch however and solved it (we hope) by buying an expensive (£100 +) roll of Terram membrane which is made for the job. We dug out the soil about 2-3 ft down cut and fitted the Terram over the subsoil but bought up the side of it and stapled that to the inside of the wooden raised veg beds. I would imagine that if you did a similar exercise right along your trench/fences and underneath your patio slabs, that might keep the bamboo roots at bay. You might try first though getting some SBK Brushwood Killer and diluting as per the instructions and carefully spraying that on the bamboo roots and shoots in the hope that this will kill it. It's pretty lethal stuff so don't get it on any plants you want to keep and keep any children, pets etc away until it's dry. Also wear rubber gloves and use a watering can kept especially for weedkillers (I keep a bright red one for that).
I do hope you manage to solve the problem.
Thanks for your help. I’ve spent a lot of time researching root barriers but seemed to be out of stock everywhere online (probably due to current circumstances!). Thanks for the recommendation of Terram membrane, it’s exactly what I was looking for, a little pricey but if it ends my sleepless nights then I’m happy to pay!
Just got to figure out what to do with the chaos it’s left behind!
It comes in a fairly heavy roll on a cyclinder. It was recommended by a professional landscaper on a previous project of ours. On the sides of your garden, it needs to be installed vertically, you could use your old paving slabs to keep it in place when you backfill with soil. Think of it more as an opportunity to have a nice new patio! If finances don't permit that just now, just replace your broken slabs with new ones, maybe in a different colour or infill with gravel. You mentioned I think, knocking down an old outbuilding but there's no need to do that just to get rid of the bamboo roots. Good luck with it, do let us know the outcome.
"Bamboo is a shallow-rooted plant that grows shade quickly. It's easy to kill him, just sprinkle salt where he grew up. I wasn't sure if it would kill the bamboo in your neighbour's, so you need chose carefully."
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...