Today I planted out some little bamboo plants that I bought from a seller on Etsy. It wasn’t really plants, but sections of roots that are supposed to grow into plants. I started them in pots a few weeks ago, six in all, and two of them sent out tiny shoots this week. So I thought it might be time to put them in the ground. I know bamboo has a propensity for spreading, so I put it somewhere it has room to grow – over on the landslide area. We can’t do much with that location anyway, as it’s all still unstable and subject to slide some more eventually.
Bamboo update 2023
Well, not one of them grew 🙁 And that was sort of an expensive experiment. So I am going to try and get some starts from some of the bamboo growing wild around some of the creeks. It won’t be as large as the awesome timber bamboo, but I think some of what I’ve seen on the roadsides by War Eagle Creek is yellow groove. It’s naturalized there in places by the bridges.
Why do I want it?
You might be wondering why I want to have bamboo. I bet some of you are groaning at the nightmare it could cause, lol.
Well, I love the idea of using the canes for structures in my garden, for one. I dream of being able to make trellises, fences, arbors, and anything else I want to build. I’ve got a never ending list of ways I might be able to use it, even in my art practice. That’s if it grows enough in my lifetime to get a chance to use it. I don’t know how long it will take to make a grove.
What kind of bamboo?
A cold-hardy variety called Blue Henon. It’s a timber type of bamboo that I hope grows to at least 2″ diameter here in our climate. It has the potential to get 50′ tall and 4″ wide, which would incredibly useful and awe-inspiring. I’ll most likely need to mulch it to protect against temperatures below zero. I thought since I’ve been able to keep my fig tree alive with mulch, I should also be able to keep these.
This bamboo is similar to the variety I planted, except I think mine should be a lighter color. The one in the photo is black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) whereas mine is blue Henon (P. nigra f. henonis). I don’t really care what color it is, though, as long as it lives and grows and gets large enough to use for garden structures.
Bamboo for Natural Art Supplies and Structures
The main thing I’m hoping to make from bamboo are the structures for my garden and whatever else I can think of to do with it. When it comes to art supplies, the thing I most want to try is paper. I found a really detailed how-to online but the url isn’t secure so I can’t give you a live link. You can cut and paste if you’d like to check it out:
bigplants.com/making-bamboo-paper/
I can’t wait to try it out. So I’ve got about five years to wait, I guess, before I have enough of it growing to cut any. The year seem to be flying by these days, so it probably won’t feel like a long wait, haha.
Passionflower Harvest
Harvested some more passionflower today. I’ve been making tea with the leaf, flower, and buds for the last several nights to see if it helps me get to sleep.
So here’s my observations for those who were wondering 🧐 It does not make me sleepy. What it does seem to do is even more helpful than that, though.
Calming the Mind
It calms those incessant circular worry thoughts- you know the kind of OCD thinking, trying-to-find-solutions-to-problems-when-it’s-time-to-go-to-sleep kind of thoughts? Or I’m going over my list of things I need to do, forgot to do, ought to do, and will never get a chance to do… lol. Well, it stops my busy mind and lets me relax, and I love this plant for that. And that in turn is helping me sleep better.
Disclaimer
As always, do your own research. I don’t share a whole lot about my medicinal use of plants because I worry about that. Make sure if you try it that you have the right plant (Passiflora incarnata), and make sure it won’t interact with other conditions or medications. And remember anyone can be allergic to anything unfamiliar. Also, I’m not sharing this as advice to use it, just sharing how I’ve used it and how it’s affecting me.
ABOUT
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Madison Woods is the pen-name for my creative works. I’m a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. My paintings of Ozark-inspired scenes feature lightfast pigments from Madison county, Arkansas. My inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction, regeneration, and transformation.
Roxann Riedel is my real name. I’m also salesperson for Montgomery Whiteley Realty. If you’re interested in buying or selling in Madison or Carroll county, AR, let me know! You can see the properties that I blog about at WildOzarkLand.com.
Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery
P.S.
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Contact Mad Rox: (479) 409-3429 or madison@madisonwoods and let me know which hat I need to put on 🙂 Madison for art, Roxann for real estate, lol. Or call me Mad Rox and have them both covered!
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