I'll add when we put the barrier in I think everyone was laughing at me. Two dead looking little bushes in the center of a huge area.

Now who's laughing! LOL

Love the setting, the pond, everything. What happened to the purple flowers that were inside the boo area?

Mima

They were annuals, Lavender Verbena I planted in 2012 to help fill the blank space till the bamboo kicking in. Not much room for flowers in there now.

I think bamboo is beautiful enough not to need any other filling plant or flower. I just love it. :)

Wow, I must admit that I too was laughing when the barrier went in!! I ate my words (giggles) later on when I saw the growth you have had. Wow! That sure is filling in nicely. What are your winter lows there?

newbamboonut, I figured you all were laughing ;) To tell you the truth I was concerned.

We have typical zone 7 winters. This year the lowest we hit was 4 degrees back in December during a week long cold stretch. But January hasn't been below 10 degrees. Average in January is highs in the 30's and lows in the teens. We have been completely average this year. Haven't ever seen it below zero here but heard in years past it has been. Our winters are a little longer though than typical zone 7 because we sit at 4100 feet above sea level. Last frost is normal around Mothers Day, first frost late September. Bamboo shoots here in May.

Very cool! Can I ask you what kind of fertilizing you did? Do you get summer rains too or no? Thanks again for the photo update, that is a lot of fun. I am doing the same with videos of me boo here in CA.

No fertilizing, just heavy compost and mulch in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Just going to leave it as is now. No more mulch and compost. We get little to no rain (10" annually). But we have flood irrigation and flood the yard once a week in the summer with a couple inches deep of water. So it gets a good deep water about once a week.

Here is a picture I took of the watering I think this was 2012:
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Oh, you just got a bigger pond for free. Jokes aside, hope your plants were fine.

Yep, we actually do that on purpose once a week, the plants love it. The pond edge is slightly above grade so we dont get water run into the pond. The plants love the deep water in the hot summer. I ahve plants that love water in the lower areas and plants that like dry in the higher areas. It works out quite well.

Interesting. Advantages of having your own yard. :)

Hi Pcan, I remember the pics of the pond, nice landscaping. I'm a little weary of planting running bamboo. How deep is the barrier and do you see any offshoots?

Hi Craigger, the barrier is 36" tall with 34" underground. Haven't had any cross but we dig about a foot down just along the inside of the barrier every fall and cut out the rhyzomes that have reached it. We got a huge pile last year all about an inch in diameter!