Category Archives: Hardy Bamboo

Posts about bamboo that can be grown in a cool temperate climate

Hardy Bamboo for Special Situations

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water tolerant hardy bamboo

Bamboo next to Pond

Hardy Bamboo can be used for many purposes, and in many different situations. A friend asked me which hardy bamboo species would be suitable for wet conditions, and be good to eat. I thought that I would write a very quick post to answer his question, and to share that information with anybody else searching for it. An added benefit to me is that helping a friend has highlighted a few more species of bamboo that might be of use to me in the future. I will certainly be browsing a few of the bamboo nursery websites to see which of them stock these plants.

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Bamboo Books for Permaculture

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bambooSome of my recent posts have had information about Hardy Bamboo in them. Much of the information for those posts have come from two Bamboo books. I thought that I’d post about them too, and do a kind of mini book review, comparing the relative benefits of each.

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Hardy Bamboo and Chickens part 2

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Hardy Bamboo in nursery bed

Hardy Bamboo in nursery bed

In my previous post about Hardy Bamboo, I looked at some of the plants that might be used in conjunction with chickens. Most will provide shelter, and an ideal environment for a Chicken Scavenging System. However that’s not all of the functions that bamboo can fulfill, and in this post I want to explore some of these other functions. After all one of the principles of Permaculture is that every element should provide more than one function. A permaculture principle that is very close to my heart, and which underpins the way that I design.

The functions that bamboo provide naturally are shelter from weather and predators I mentioned these in the previous post. You can read the earlier Chicken and Bamboo if you haven’t already done so.

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Hardy Bamboo and Chickens: Part One

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Hardy Bamboo and Chickens

Hardy Bamboo and Chickens

Hardy Bamboo and Chickens are an ideal combination. Whilst bamboo doesn’t provide food for chickens, it does provide an ideal environment for them, and for the insects that they love to feed on.

Perhaps I should rephrase that. Bamboo isn’t known as a chicken food, but nobody told my chickens. They seem happy to browse on the young tender leaves. Here at the Sustainable Smallholding we are growing Hardy Bamboo. and keeping chickens, but the combination of the two is something that I’m really looking forward to.

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Hardy Bamboo Update

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A few days ago I was presented with this hardy bamboo.

hardy bamboo in wheelbarrow

bamboo in wheelbarrow

It’s a new shoot of Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens, and was brought to me by a mate. He dug it up from Vic’s place, and I’ve posted pictures of the bamboo at his place before bamboo pictures.

My friend Roy dug some of the shoots up, as Vic was going to mow them down. With the dry weather, most of the feeding/watering roots were deep down, so these shoots are likely to struggle to establish, but they were due for destruction anyway, so it was worth the risk.

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