Feeling sore this morning after attacking and clearing some clumps of Bamboo from our garden. These are offshoots (literally) of a couple of large bamboo plants which our neighbour has planted next to the fence that separate our gardens.

This is an ongoing war. Last year I ended up digging a 5m long trench across the lawn to remove a runner that was spreading. I only have about another 1m square of the clump to dig up before all the bamboo in our garden has gone. However I know that this is only a holding operation.

We are looking into installing a barrier below the surface (down to 50cm) to stop it coming across (another job I am looking forward to). However I’ve got a couple of questions for the STW hive mind

1. How can I kill bamboo? Are there chemicals strong enough to kill it? So far I’ve not found anything. Digging it out seems to be the only option

2. What can I do (in a legal sense) to get my neighbour to take responsibility for the plants that are attacking my garden. Before I go round and talk to them I want to know what they are responsible for. We are planning to redo our lawn, starting this winter, and I don’t want to have to keep digging it up. (Bombers and wee in their shoes are already in the plan!)

And just in case you failed to understand – I hate bamboo!!!!

Does the lawnmower not keep it in check on the lawn? We have a Sumac which spreads but its easily controlled by the lawnmower.

As for the neighbour, not IIRC, only if it’s something really bad like japanese knotweed.

I loathe the pencil spikes that bamboo sends up in our lawn, designed to draw blood from bare-footed lawn-lovers.
I pull these out as sooon as they appear, but the only real answer is to get rid of your neighbour’s plants. Spray with glyphosate while they’re on holiday.
(Bamboo is a grass. Check that any herbicide works on grasses)

but the only real answer is to get rid of your neighbour’s plants. Spray with glyphosate while they’re on holiday.

Which would be illegal and you could end up being prosecuted for it.

Simplest thing would be to dig down next to the fence and set a weed proof membrane vertical barrier down to say 50cm and then back fill – will stop the bamboo roots spreading into your garden.

You have my sympathy if its out of hand though.

I had to take a chainsaw to the pampas grass left in our front lawn. Just digging it back to ground level generated about 500kg of waste!

Which would be illegal and you could end up being prosecuted for it.

What if he just sprays it on the bamboo in his garden and lets the roots do the rest?

Try speaking to your neighbour

Inject it with poison.

What if he just sprays it on the bamboo in his garden and lets the roots do the rest?

Intentionally killing someone else’s plants is still a pretty daft idea, esp if you live next door to them.

What if they then decide to start spraying weed killer over the fence in retaliation?

Just put in a root barrier and the problem is solved amicably without anyone killing anything.

nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure..

You have my sympathies, a neighbours tree/plant thing used to send huge under ground roots though to the middle of my lawn before sprouting. He seems to have killed it though (honestly.. I really had nothing to do with it)

Bamboo rhizome will grow through most membranes. You can however buy proper barriers to block it. It’s some kind of really strong plastic.

edit: it’s high density polyprop. And it needs to go quite deep…

item three on here
http://www.wikihow.com/Kill-Bamboo

The little pale green shoots are quite tasty, painful to tread on but tasty.

Simplest thing would be to dig down next to the fence and set a weed proof membrane vertical barrier down to say 50cm and then back fill – will stop the bamboo roots spreading into your garden.

Back it up with some slates.

^ sounds like a plan.

Bamboo rhizome will grow through most membranes. You can however buy proper barriers to block it. It’s some kind of really strong plastic.

Indeed….and through thin plastic eventually! When I planted a strip along my boundary I had some steel plates made up that enclosed the bamboo and after five years they are still working. I would suggest using a sharp spade and periodically chopping in a line close to the boundary to cut through any shoots and pull them up and sling back over the fence. If you can see them.

I had this when i moved in 3 years ago.

I resolved it at the start of this spring by digging up everything in my garden and theirs.

They had told me they had dealt with it but all they had done was strimmered it down to ground level.

The rhizomes had spread for about 6-7metres along the fence line.

It was a mess afterwards and the brown bins were full of roots etc.

The responsibility lies with the neighbour to have their plant correctly contained, preferably in a metal pot which is visible above the ground so the roots can’t jump, trust me they will.

Nothing else will work.

Call in some experts.

Can you dig down and stick a couple of layers of plastic (e.g. corrugated plastic) to protect it? You could even sandwich some root barrier material them between for extra protection

Bamboo? Was hoping for something more along these lines.

Can you dig down and stick a couple of layers of plastic (e.g. corrugated plastic) to protect it? You could even sandwich some root barrier material them between for extra protection

That sort of plastic goes brittle and breaks up over time, it needs to be the sort of plastic that large chemical drums and such are made from, flexible and not prone to disintegrating, and which I’d too hard for the bamboo to penetrate.

km79 – Member
Inject it with poison.

We don’t need it anymore…