The Good News Only - thread...

[AuroraSaab]

That's an easy one. Plant a small "patch" of bamboo in your garden, in a year or two all of your neighbours gardens will be overgrown with the stuff. 😂 Plenty to harvest from what used to be your neighbours lawn, and, no grass to cut, win-win.

It's incredibly invasive. We had some and the sharp shoots coming up through the lawn were a bit scary when the kids were running around in bare feet. Plant it in a container is the solution apparently.

 

[First Aspect]

Mmm. We have a bamboo problem in the area as well.

Invasive species on a large scale means a biodiversity issue as well. There is a risk that bamboo is grown industrially in places where it will create bio deserts.

A lot of that article is hard for me to judge. Lots of bold claims about economic viability that I know nothing about.

The science itself; well I know a tiny bit about this sort of thing but again not enough to properly understand. In broad terms they are trying to disrupt the natural cellulose structures that make bamboo behave like it does. They are "unzipping" the molecules and letting them bind back together in a different way that results in better plasticity. This sort of thing is easy enough to measure so I'd be inclined to take it at face value.

 

[BoldonLad]

It's incredibly invasive. We had some and the sharp shoots coming up through the lawn were a bit scary when the kids were running around in bare feet. Plant it in a container is the solution apparently.

Yes, not something which I have experienced personally, but, my sister-in-law has been fighting a rear guard action against a neighbours escaped bamboo, for several years 😂

 

[Ian H]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_torture

But won't someone think of the pandas!

 

[AuroraSaab]

Yes, not something which I have experienced personally, but, my sister-in-law has been fighting a rear guard action against a neighbours escaped bamboo, for several years 😂

This is a bit grim but my school art teacher once told the class a horrific story of his service during the war. His unit came across a jungle hospital that the Japanese had overrun. They had shot all the staff and patients. One man had been pinned down over a clump of bamboo so that it would grow up through his body. I have no idea if this anecdote was true or not but he was very serious when he said it. He also said, 'We took no prisoners after that'.

 

[Cirrus]

Mmm. We have a bamboo problem in the area as well.

Bloody Pandas 🐼

 

[First Aspect]

Bloody Pandas 🐼

We need more pandas.

 

[briantrumpet]

We need more pandas.

Agreed.

 

[briantrumpet]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_ZUv32sUxw

 

[Ian H]

There are some bamboo varieties that are less invasive, forming compact clumps rather than spreading.

 

[BoldonLad]

There are some bamboo varieties that are less invasive, forming compact clumps rather than spreading.

But, can you make them into plastic?

 

[Ian H]

But, can you make them into plastic?

I haven't tried.

 

[Beebo]

Some bamboo is very invasive, some isn’t.
You have to be careful in choosing the right stuff.
We currently have a problem with bracken.
Our neighbour planted some in his garden for some mad reason. We often get shoots appearing in our lawn at least a metre from the fence.