What is a smart bamboo?
They are bamboo plants that have been cultivated and designed to create a low maintenance bamboo plant. That stays the same form and height as the day you plant them out with very little effort from the gardener. The gardeners and the farmers of Asia have been using bamboo plants the smart way for hundreds of years. To suit many situations.
The gardeners and landscapers of Thailand love to use Bambusa Nana (Thai Silk Bamboo) as a smart bamboo for screening. Its erect culms (canes) are often used to create tall erect green screens up to 6 meters in height for when a customer needs instant privacy to a set height. The individual culms are mostly potted up 3 to a pot and tied together. They leaf up rapidly and are planted out at whatever spacing’s suits the situation. Thai Silk Bamboo is the superior bamboo to create smart bamboo plants with, and is the perfect bamboo for creating a bamboo screen in large pots.
The Japanese call it bonsai and they are very skilled at keeping ornamental bamboos small in shallow dishes. They also create bamboo landscapes with individual culms (canes) of bamboo to create the look that says Japanese perfection.
The smart way to grow bamboo shoots
In south-east Asia, they create smart bamboo plants to keep their popular large shoot producing bamboos down in size so that they are easy to manage for the harvesting of sweet edible shoots and to create strong propagation material on the same plants for future plantings. These smart farmers are swimming and drinking and fishing at the same time.
Smart bamboo plants can be created from many different bamboo species into man-made forms for use in gardens where you need bamboos that will not grow into clumps that dominate your tropical garden and smother less vigorous plants. My two favourite bamboo species for creating Smart bamboos are Bambusa Nana (Thai Silk) and Bambusa Wamin (Budda Belly). They are very hardy stunning plants. Water needs are not big but need small amounts of water most days in the warmer months. You can plant out a smart bamboos as a privacy screen to the height you need to get instant privacy. In many situations there is no need for root barriers or contained beds because it’s a smart bamboo. Its roots will not dominate an open space. Use smart bamboo in squat pots or troths on your deck or around you pool to create that instant mobile erect privacy screen.
Clumping bamboo in pots needs to be re potted ever year to look their best. Smart bamboos in pots well cared for will only need to be re potted ever 4 to 6 years depending on the species.
Why Are Smart Bamboos a Smart Choice?
If you plant the wrong clumping species of bamboo in the wrong situation in the warmer temperate zones the subtropics or wet tropics. You can end up with a big job maintaining the bamboo to the size that suits your garden landscape. Using smart bamboos in your garden will give you the bamboo look and feel and privacy that you are trying to create with a little effort from the gardener in the spring and summer months.
Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth
That is why they have become very popular as a fast growing erect screening plant in Australia’s suburban gardens. In some garden landscapes in Australia bamboos has been used poorly and have to be removed only a few years after planting. Because the have grown too large and have created too much maintenance for the gardener. Smart bamboos solve this problem.
All Bamboos Only Grow As Big As You Want Them Too
It’s all about what you grow them in.
- The soil type
- The container size and profile
- The width and depth of the bed you are planting in
- The amount of space you give them to spread their small fibros roots
- The spacing of you plants when creating a screen is most important because
they will compete for food and water. - Which in turn will control the growth of you bamboo screen.
- If you use smart bamboos in your suburban tropical garden you will not have to follow the normal bamboo gardening rules
Ten ways to use smart bamboos
- In pots and troughs
- In that narrow garden bed buy the pool for instant privacy
- Wherever you need an instant green screen that stays erect in all weather.
- In front of that large glass wall that lets to much light in
- In a mature garden where you wish to plant some bamboo in tight situations to create some instant privacy.
- Where you need a privacy screen that stays the same height year after year.
- Selling a property. Screening out that ugly view instantly with smart bamboos could get you a sale.
- In a tropical garden landscape where you would like to use bamboos that do not dominate the space.
- Where you garden space is limited and you wish to grow some sweet edible bamboo shoots
- Where you want the big bamboo look in your suburban garden without the big bamboo maintenance job
Fresh tall smart bamboo Thai Silk screens
There is no more effective or economical way to create a tall permanent green screen. A very smart use of Thai Silk bamboo.
Each stick (culm) is an individual plant so they compete with each other. Smart bamboo controlling smart bamboo.
Get bamboo smart with your garden design
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