Marcus Chen · May 31, 2026
Last spring, I decided to build a freestanding bamboo trellis for a section of climbing roses along my back fence. Simple enough project — except I had about sixty culms to cut, trim, and notch to length. My old crosscut…
Marcus Chen · May 18, 2026
Last spring, my tomato garden was an absolute disaster. Three weeks after transplanting, my Beefsteak and Roma plants were already flopping sideways. The wire cages I had relied on for years had rusted through over winter. I needed a replacement…
Marcus Chen · May 16, 2026
Three winters ago, I had a patio full of cracked, faded plastic pots and a serious case of plant parent guilt. Every spring, I’d drag out whatever survived — usually not much — and start over. I’d been searching for…
Marcus Chen · May 15, 2026
Last spring, I decided to build a small bamboo shade structure in my backyard. I had plenty of poles from a culm harvest the previous fall, and I was tired of watching them sit in a pile. My problem was…
Marcus Chen · May 14, 2026
If you’ve ever pulled a sad, waterlogged dumpling out of a pot, you know the feeling. That was me, every single Sunday, for about three years. I’d been attempting homemade dim sum for a while, and my results were consistently…
Marcus Chen · May 10, 2026
My Garden Path Was a Safety Hazard After Dark…
Marcus Chen · May 6, 2026
My back patio had a problem I kept ignoring. After every rainstorm, the old indoor rug I’d dragged outside would stay soggy for days. It smelled. It grew mildew. Mud tracked in from the garden stuck to the fibers and…
Marcus Chen · May 4, 2026
The Pruning Saw I Use to Harvest Bamboo Poles Every Season…
Marcus Chen · May 2, 2026
After fifteen years of growing bamboo commercially, I still lose poles to cracking every single season. Not from bad harvesting. Not from poor timing. The culprit is almost always the drying phase — specifically, drying too fast or too unevenly….
Marcus Chen · April 25, 2026
Three years into growing bamboo, I cut my first real harvest — about 40 poles of Phyllostachys vivax — stacked them against my barn, and had absolutely no idea what to do next. I’d read everything I could find online…