How to create a smart bamboo

First you need an healthy mature bamboo plant. You can use most species of bamboo but if you want to create a strong hardy smart bamboo, plant bambusa nana is the winner. Wamin Buddha Belly bamboo is right up there too. Bambusa Chungii has turned out to be very hardy as a smart bamboo in the warm subtropical areas.

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HARVESTED CULMS [CANES] OF A LARGE VARIETY OF BAMBUSA NANA

6 steps to create a smart bamboo

  • Step 1: dig last years culm [cane] with the top bud on the rhizome above the cut.
  • Step 2: cut the culm [cane] to the height you want your screening bamboo to be.
  • Step 3: pot the culm into a good medium like coco peat or sphagnum moss. Stand the culm up right in a full sun situation and support by tying to a horizontal brace.
  • Step 4: when using a smaller diameter culms [canes]. Tie 3 culms [canes] together to create a smart bamboo that will be covered in foliage in no time.  This is the most popular form of smart bamboo you will see in Thailand.
  • Step 5: you can plant them out as a screen as soon as you like.
  • Step 6: brace them in place with horizontal bracing for the first year in a windy situation if needed.

Spring is the best time to create smart bamboos but if you have the right environment or have a controlled environment you can do them year round.

Smart bamboos are the future of bamboo screening in Australian’s suburban gardens.

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6 METER TALL BAMBUSA NANA 3 CULMS [CANES] TO A BAG

The best bamboo plant for screening

gracilis slender weaver

Why is bambusa textilis gracilis  the number one bamboo for hedging and screening in Australia. It tolerates extremes of weather from hot dry winds to frost even water logging and drought.

Gracilis bamboo will grow in most soil types even heavy clay and well drained sand can be prepared to grow healthy bamboo plants. From Darwin to Tasmania and across to Perth it’s the one that does the  privacy screening job like no other bamboo.

This superior bamboo has been grown in Australia for more than 25 years. And in this time it has proven  to be the best bamboo for many situations. it has won the over hearts and minds of even the most extreme bamboo haters.The wife planted it I had to remove it 3 years later it took over the neighbourhood. Its emptied my wallet and stuffed my back digging it out.I have heard  similar bamboo horror stories a thousand times in the last 30years. but this erect graceful non-invasive bamboo gracilis has washed off most of the mud that has dirtied  the word bamboo for 50 years in Australia.

Gracilis bamboo has no irritating hairs on its stems to make the little ones itchy and no pest or disease problems. Is very upright in form and very tight clumping. Gracilis bamboo is also very adaptable to many situations That tight garden bed 50cm wide  between your drive way and the fence and that lovely neighbour that’s always looking. The narrow garden bed between the fence and the pool with all the pipes in it. Prepare the bed right and gracilis bamboo will not be a problem with its small shallow fibrosis roots. 80% of its roots will be in the first 20cm of soil.

The problems that can be solved with  gracilis bamboo hedge are many:

  • Traffic  noise: A healthy gracilis bamboo hedge planted at the right distance from a roadway will soak up most of the road noise.
  • Dirt roads and dust problems: Gracilis bamboo can help here to if you plant you bamboo screen as close to the road as possible.
  • A two story house is being built next door and they can see all we do. Gracilis bamboo is a great two story screener.
  • You can’t legally build a 6meter high fence on your border to block out that neighbor that’s always a problem but you can legally plant a gracilis bamboo screen or hedge.
  • Power cables and pipes in my garden bed are buried 50cm deep. and I need to grow a privacy screen in that bed so we have privacy in our pool on those hot summer nights. Gracilis bamboo will do the job in no time.
  • The ugly block wall that acts as a heat sink in the summer. make a bed at the base 50cm wide and 50cm deep and plant gracilis bamboo. In no time you will have a cool green wall that will cool down your private space.
  • The hot afternoon sun is often a problem plant gracilis bamboo to create shade to cool that space that was once to hot to relax in.
  • Designing a new home and want total privacy from the day you move in. Save money and time Use gracilis bamboo to create instant privacy in your dream home and garden.
  • Smaller and smaller house blocks gracilis bamboo is the fast solution to the many of the privacy problems that come with high density suburban  living.
The best bamboo plant for screening
The best bamboo plant for screening

Planting a gracilis bamboo screen or hedge to solve a privacy problem is also the most economical way to do the job. Price a high fence or a wall against a planted gracilis screen and you will see why it’s the cheapest and the greenest  solution to your privacy problem.

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