Bamboo poles and some uses

We are all well used to using bamboo canes in our gardens and probably don't give them a second thought. The humble garden cane performs its duties admirably until it gets old and brittle and then it is easily replaced by a new one at very little cost.

These canes are at the bottom end of what constitutes a bamboo pole. An eight foot cane can be up to an inch in diameter but in the bamboo world this is tiny. Poles of up to four inches in diameter are readily available in the UK.

Poles like these have a multitude of uses in the garden both aesthetic and practical. Most if not all of the poles available in the UK are the canes of a timber bamboo called Moso. It is cropped commercially in China and is a genuine renewable resource.

Bamboo cane is usually sold as construction cane and in SE. Asia it is indeed used for construction and also scaffolding such is the strength of this remarkable grass.

In the garden it can be used in a multitude of ways and is very versatile. An obvious use is to replace the boring but necessary wooden fence posts or so it would seem. The difficulty is in fixing fence panels or screening directly to the poles and of course there are no round "Metpost style" fixings yet available. A good compromise is if the fence posts are rotten then replace them with bamboo poles but always seal their uppermost end to prevent a build up of water. If the posts are basically sound split the poles lengthways and screw them to the fence posts. 

The poles also lend themselves to creating unique water features. Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh created a bamboo rill in one of their "Ground Force" gardens and simply joined the cut lengths of bamboo with mastic of the aquarium variety and ran the "pole rill" down the length of the garden on other bamboo poles.

Deerscarers, and water spouts can also be made from these poles. You will need to have available bamboo of differing diameters but creating your own unique design or copying an existing design simply takes time and care.

When it comes to drilling the bamboo to join the pieces together always use a hss metal drill. Bamboo is extremely hard and will blunt an ordinary wood drill in an instant. Larger holes are best drilled with a hole saw with the bamboo held firmly in a" Workmate" or vice.

Try to make all joins secure with bamboo pins as they will hold the item together in a much more secure and aesthetically pleasing manner than metal fixings.

These massive grass poles can also be very successfully used as an alternative to wooden handrails as you see on timber decks and other "Diarmud Gavin" type metal versions.
Assuming its timber then the pole needs a holes drilling in it so that the handrail uprights fit neatly into the pole. The pole is then fastened with either black tying cord, brass screws or both.
If the handrail is functional rather than decorative then the following method needs to be used which also applies to metal versions.
The poles need to have a slot split into them equal to the width of the existing wood/metal rail. The pole is then able to slip over the rail and fit like a glove. The final flourish is to fix it in place with a strong tying cord.

Fancy your own bamboo gazebo or beach hut?
Bamboo poles provide the structural elements such as uprights and roof braces. They have more than enough strength to do the job. Fixing accurately and effectively is the key here and the best advice  is to read this book The Craft and Art of Bamboo.
This shows you how to create joints that are both solid and safe.  The roof can be made of plywood, the marine variety and overlaid with any of the screens.

A word of warning at this point.
Before attempting to use the bamboo pole for anything you need to be aware of one possible danger.
Bamboo gets its strength from a hard mineral called Silica. Whilst it is growing the bamboo plant takes up this silica from the soil and deposits it in successive rings in its culms.
The silica forms tiny tubes along the length of the cane and if  you look at the end of a cut cane you can see the concentric circles which look like little brown spots. A brittle cane or a damaged one always produces splinters of near pure silica and as it is a major component of glass then it is no surprise to find that these bamboo splinters are like needles. We have all probably had one in our fingers at sometime or other from an ordinary garden cane and the bigger the pole the more splinters it may produce.

Be careful not frightened!

The "buy" buttons take you to the correct page in our shop.

We no longer sell bamboo poles as every man and his dog is bringing in ungraded bamboo poles by the container load
 and as with most things in life "you get what you pay for!"