Marcus Chen · July 27, 2026
For years I bagged up every bamboo leaf that fell in my yard and hauled it to the curb, which I now recognize as a genuinely embarrassing waste of free mulch. Bamboo leaves break down into one of the better organic mulches you can put down, and the culms I thin out every season chip … Read more
Marcus Chen · April 26, 2026
By the end of year two, I was ready to give up on the south grove entirely. I had planted a mixed stand of Phyllostachys aureosulcata and Phyllostachys nigra in what I thought was decent ground — slightly acidic, good…
Marcus Chen · February 14, 2026
I almost cried in my backyard. Not a little misty-eyed moment — I mean full-on, hands-on-knees, what-have-I-done despair. I had just spent $600 on bare-root bamboo plants, dug out a 40-foot privacy screen planting bed by hand over three weekends, and watched every single one of those plants sit there, sulk, and slowly yellow into … Read more