Spring Time, Eco Gardening and the Wonders of Bamboo

It’s the only time of the year that the sound of someone else’s mower doesn’t feel like an intrusion. It’s spring, and the garden has come back to life at last. And if someone is mowing their grass – well that’s great, because the lawns have been totally inactive for months. In fact, the past four months around where I live have been unusually cold, and spring, when it finally arrived, did so in some haste. One week it was winter, next week there were lambs in the field, crocuses in the parks, and one of my neighbors was mowing his lawn.

Unfortunately, two tough jobs awaited us in our tiny garden. First we had to drain and clean the little pond. Ugh! Then it was time to cut back the bamboo. Now bamboo is a remarkable plant. Related to grass, it’s the strongest material in our garden. It bends with the wind, but the bamboo cladding on our fence has lasted for years with no sign of rotting. And the way it grows! If you don’t cut it back every year it’ll take over!

Image credit: loungerie

Bamboo makes a wonderful, eco-friendly, building material; scaffolding all over Asia depends on it. And come to that, so do craftsmen all over Asia as well. Because it’s one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, a bamboo plantation is a wonderful, naturally renewable, source of craft material, absorbing carbon at the same time as providing great raw materials for beautiful bowls, plates, kitchen accessories, and so much more.

And to my mind there’s no better eco gift than something made by hand from Bamboo. My personal favorite is a free-form bamboo knife-block we’ve got in our kitchen. All Bamboo, beautifully lacquered, and the most amazingly useful bit of equipment you can imagine.

So somehow I find it hard to resent the work we have to do to keep our garden bamboo in check. After all, we chose to plant it in the first place, and somewhere in the world craftsmen and women depend on it for their living. All in all, you have to like Bamboo, just as you have to love the arrival of a new spring.

About the author:
Tom is an unashamed tree hugger and eco blogger currently working for a company specializing in eco home furnishings. He loves finding ethical and environmentally friendly solutions to help his family live a greener life.

Related Topics:

1. 3 Ways To Make Gardening More Eco-friendly
2. Free Eco-Friendly Gardening Do-it-Herself Workshop Featuring Martha Stewart Living
3. Understanding Organic Gardening