Q: We would like to get rid of bamboo in our yard. The previous owners planted the bamboo as a privacy screen. Can we dig it out?

A: You can control it by digging but it will be a miserable process. A friend found a patch in her back yard three years ago. She hired a teenager to dig it all up but she continues to find sprouts coming from undiscovered underground stems. Bamboo extends its underground parts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. It puts up green sprouts in spring but it is extending its roots the rest of the year. In my opinion, the best you can hope for is to chop it all down to ground level and then dig up EVERY sprout that appears or spray glyphosate (Roundup, etc) on any bamboo tip that emerges for the next four years. Either way, eventually you’ll starve it to death.

See Bamboo Control

backyard bamboo