Why you should not plant bamboo in your yard

I love bamboo.

The best way to get rid of bamboo is to have dogs. :p I know someone who tried for years to grow bamboo but her dogs destroyed all of it. It did get quite tall for a awhile but her dogs eventually tore it apart and any that started to grow the following years.
 
I want to grow bamboo now. :p

I just assumed it wouldn't grow in my climate, so I never thought to try it. I wonder if the winter would kill it off completely or if it would just come back in the spring.
 
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I want to grow bamboo now. :p

I just assumed it wouldn't grow in my climate, so I never thought to try it. I wonder if the winter would kill it off completely or if it would just come back in the spring.
There are winter hardy bamboo species. I'm in Zone 6, and there are varieties that are winter hardy here.
 
As soon as I read the headline alone, I recalled the bamboo planted on my grandmother's property in Connecticut. It was so invasive that once my uncle stopped tending to it, it took over most her property and when it was cut down it returned with a vengeance. I think we underestimate just how hearty it is, being that it is a species of grass.
 
2 years after buying our house (with a magnificent garden), we get the impression that maybe the former owner did not install a 100% tight Rhizome barrier.... as we do have some shoots in some places where they are not supposed to be.
 
I was going to suggest "Eat the enemy".... but I think at least some kinds of bamboo are somewhat poisonous unless they're cooked (or otherwise prepared) properly. Anyway, once it gets a head start, almost nobody has enough of an appetite to stop it.

I've eaten bamboo shoots in Chinese food more times than I can count, but I never found out what kind it was, or how easy/troublesome it would be to grow or prepare.

From the article @Amy SF posted:
Experts at the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension office recommend burying thick 60-ml polypropylene or fiberglass about three feet deep, and leaving another two inches of material above the soil to inhibit surface spreading. Morgan Judy of Clemson University Cooperative Extension suggests creating a solid barrier made of concrete, metal or pressure-treated wood at least 18 inches deep around the bamboo.
Hmmm.... I think this would present yet another problem: those solutions don't appear to be environmentally-friendly either. I guess us vegans would have to team up with environmentally-conscious "foodies" and just turn our appetites on them. We'd also have to find other uses for the bamboo.

Another idea: people who have difficulty growing plants (sometimes known as "black thumbs") could specialize in growing invasives like this. Then if the plants died, they could still feel good about it!
 
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