In July, I attended Ned Jaquith’s memorial, held at his Bamboo Garden Nursery in North Plains, OR. During visits to his nursery, Ned would usually treat me to a tour of the garden, so it was a very sad realization that Ned would never again be there to greet me. Still, it was a wonderful comfort to visit and share food with friends, and to share entertainment and stories with so many people, all of us brought together by Ned Jaquith. The bamboo grove was a beautiful backdrop for the drumming performance, and the perfect place to share our memories of Ned following the performance. I am grateful to Ned for all of the experiences and memories he gave me during the years I knew him. Here are a few clips of the drumming performance, another gift from Ned that, with permission from the performers, I gladly share.
Although our customers loved the screening, the beauty and the utility of this bamboo in their children’s play area, due to lifestyle changes, they needed the area to be very low maintenance. After discussing the options, we decided a complete bamboo removal was the best solution. Our customers fell behind on the maintenance, so the bamboo grew under the rock border into the “sandbox”, and under and around the play house. In an attempt to keep the bamboo at bay, the canes were cut down leaving stumps and spikes, severely compromising the safety and usefulness of the entire play area. Unlike digging bamboo field divisions, this removal was of the “demolition” variety, where the main considerations are cost effectiveness and efficiency.
Here are a few pics and notes from the Bamboo Craft Workshop held here at Outdoors By Design nursery back in (I hate to write this) September! In the making of a simple bamboo flower vase, Charissa taught students how to “prepare bamboo as an art material” including techniques for splitting, cutting, notching, and heat bending bamboo, techniques to bind it together, and decorate with rattan using Japanese caning knots. It was agreed upon by participants and teacher alike, that the workshop was a wonderful success! [click to continue…]
In this video demonstration, I thin out a young planting of Fargesia scabrida. This particular plant started from a full, #2 container, and has been in the ground for three growing seasons. One thing I don’t mention in the video is that I like to prune my clumping bamboos in fall, well after the current […]
Last weekend, the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Bamboo Society hosted the 2009 American Bamboo Society Conference at the Murano hotel in Tacoma, WA. If you’ve never attended a conference, here are some pics and notes that will give you an idea of what goes on. You can click on the pics to view […]
