The neighbor planted bamboo, the running kind, next to the fence, on his side. Now it has invaded the vegetable garden, the organic kind, next to the fence, on our side.
When it was brought up to the neighbor, he was good-natured enough about it. But he defended the planting of such invasive plant in a residential area. Why, it’s beautiful! And it blocks the noise from the street!
Even this novice gardener is not falling for it. Of course, I am in full agreement about the beauty of bamboo. I had chosen bamboo flooring to replace the carpet in the living room. And once while traveling to Singapore, I fell in love with this garden display at the airport.
Bamboo garden in Singapore’s Changi Airport, quite possibly the best airport in the world.
But having these sprouting in the vegetable garden,
is a little too much to take.
There are certainly other equally beautiful and much more restraint greeneries that can be used to block out the noise from the street.
The Novice Gardener 
I feel your pain! My neighbor’s 6′ high milkweed was annoying, and the Bermuda grass creeping under the fence was even more so, but even those were not as invasive as bamboo!
Maybe I should harvest the shoots and eat them; isn’t that how the famous saying goes,”If you can’t beat them, eat them!”
Hey, that’s a good idea! I love bamboo shoots. For some reason, I just never thought of them as coming from those big bamboo plants 🙂
Perhaps it’d be worth sinking a physical barrier, like old Lino, to a depth of a couple of feet along the fence line (after removing all roots).
Thanks, John, for the idea. That would probably be the only thing that will stop the marauding bamboo. Now if I could find some old Lino…
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I understand the pain of bamboo, I have now dug up 3 lots, none of which I planted, all were invasive and a pain to dig up!
We spent this past weekend digging a trench along the fence line, and are planning to put some kind of barrier. What a huge pain! I think running bamboo should be banned in residential area!