Tag Archives: hardy bamboo

Will 2011 be the busiest year ever at The Sustainable Smallholding?

If you have read my recent posts, you could be forgiven for thinking that all I’m doing at the moment is catching swarms. I did think that if ever I wrote an autobiography, this chapter would be entitled ‘Summers in a bee suit’, but I’m trying hard to keep up with all of the other chores that need doing. With no swarms for two days, and after a concerted effort to get ahead of the bees in terms of hive and frame assembly, I have actually managed to spend some time repotting, potting on, planting out, and thinking about the future.

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Cutting Hardy Bamboo

I have spent the day cutting hardy bamboo. Not mine. None of my bamboo will be ready to harvest for a few years yet. This bamboo belongs to Vic, the guy who first let me take some sections of his bamboo, and started this fascination (obsession) with bamboo. Another friend, Roy, who you will see in a couple of the pictures, has been helping Vic to thin out some of his bamboo, and today I lent a hand.

About Bamboo

For anybody who doesn’t know, bamboo starts out juvenile (thin and spindly), and when established, starts to send up progressively taller, and thicker culms, until it reaches full size. The culms (stems) grow to their maximum height over the course of a few weeks, and will not get thicker with age. When mature, stems of full girth, grow rapidly to full height, amazing everybody who sees it for the first time. The picture below shows a 20 ft (6 meter) tall stem of a Phyllostachys bissetti, cut earlier today.

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More Hardy Bamboo

At the end of last week I took another trip down to the nursery of Paul Whittaker, author of the book, HARDY BAMBOO, Taming the Dragon. I had reserved four new species to grow here, last year, but hadn’t been able to make the trip earlier.

The original list was Phyllostachys nuda, Phyllstachys propinqua, Phyllostachys rubromarginata, and Chusquea culeou. I added Fargesia rufa, and a Phyllostachys vivax cultivar.

The three original Phyllostachys varieties were selected primarily for their edible shoots, but all have good culm wood, and can be used for building small structures. I had ordered the Chusquea primarily for it’s attractiveness, but I then checked, and found out that it has good edible shoots too, which makes it a better permaculture plant.

The P.vivax cultivar that I added was just a pretty colour. All of the P. vivax cultivars are strong growers, with tasty shoots, and large culms. I already have two varieties.

The Fargesia was bought to use as poultry shelter. It will grow to about 12ft maximum, clump tightly, but leans outwards slightly, giving shade in Summer, and shelter in Winter.

For those of you who like facts, I’ve collated some information for you. Please note that these figures are based on performance in the UK, and growth will be greater with more warmth. Paul’s website is called Hardy Bamboo.

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The Sustainable Smallholding – An Aspiration

Hi All

My Blog title, The Sustainable Smallholding, is an aspiration, as opposed to a description of where we are at the moment. The reasons for that are many, and complex, but one of the key ones is the sheer amount of knowledge that you need to acquire, and solutions that you have to find, to achieve sustainability, self reliance, or self sufficiency. It seems that each time that you peel back a layer of a problem, another sits nestled within. In this post I will explore some of the areas that I have identified as important in my search for sustainability.

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Vegetable Growing Systems

With almost all of my tree planting over, I’ve been getting the vegetable growing areas ready. Normally I would be doing this in Autumn, but I wanted to get the trees in first, and then the snow interrupted that, and so it is only now that I’m catching up on my work. In the interim, I’ve been catching up on my reading/research. So I’ll explain what I’m doing at the moment, and some of the different vegetable growing systems that I’ve been trying to incorporate into a coherent single ‘way’ for me to garden.

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