kid you not. I just snagged this on my walk, today. I brought it home and sawed it into sections for starts. I cannot resist it's functionality. However, I thought it was bamboo.

This is considered highly invasive - even worse than running bamboo as giant reed grass roots go very deep.

I wonder how well it cures. The dead sections were brittle but the green stalk was intensely hard.

I found the comment section very helpful. Once I got through all the negatives.

"However, giant reed has a variety of uses. It had been used to make primitive pipe organs. The reeds for woodwind instruments are still made from its culms and there are no known satisfactory substitutes. Also, it is employed in basketry and used for livestock fodder, making fishing rods, as a medicinal element, and soil erosion control."

I'd put a link but this site doesn't like that busness!

If my starts work, I'll build a metal barrier to place in ground so it can be destroyed when I'm done with it.

It is causing trouble in California and Texas. The worst thing is that water can carry it down stream and then it covers the banks. The MO botanical garden did not consider it so bad. I am going to watch it. It has already grown lots and as you know the last two years have been very dry and it has gotten much bigger. I got it at a Master Gardeners' sale in Springfield, MO. It is in their garden. I would not plant it near a structure or wall or driveway etc.

Now I'm wondering if I should just get some bamboo... Kinda disappointed the culm won't get very large.

We have this. We actually have both running golden fishpole bamboo and giant reed grass in the same backyard (not by choice, they came with the house). Arundo Donax is the scientific name of the reed grass, I think. I will say that the canes from the reed grass are sturdier than the canes from the bamboo. The reed grass is deciduous and the bamboo is semi-evergreen for me here in OKC. I posted some pictures when we first bought the house, the owner at my house planted the bamboo and a neighbor several lots down planted the Arundo Donax ... both are highly invasive and are in a battle to the death to see which can overtake the whole neighborhood. :) Our next door neighbor, who is two houses from Arundo Donax house, has been unable to eradicate it in his backyard even after three years of cut and dig and pull - I do not think he's resorted to chemicals yet. My husband keeps cutting the reed grass down to keep it from infiltrating our bamboo too badly. A metal barrier is not sufficient if you want to keep it contained, you will need HDPE "rhizome barrier" (google or check GW's bamboo forum, lots of info there) and it can be ordered online or in OKC it is available at Alligator Alley on NW 10th St. We plan to install rhizome barrier in our backyard as part of a massive landscape overhaul in the next year or two - for now, we are in the "don't let it gain ground" phase. I am not sure which other bamboos you can plant in our zone that get large culms - the GW bamboo forum would know, though.

Enough for the cautionary tale, and on to the good stuff. Reed grass is better for the types of garden structures you mention - teepees/stakes - my bamboo tends to split as it is drying out, so some sections are usable but not in the long lengths of the reeds. I bring a big bunch of the reed grass canes to the Spring Fling every year - maybe someone who has taken some will chime in on how they have worked out. My guess is they are good for only a season or two and only for lightweight things. For example, I didn't think they were strong enough to cage my tomatoes - I'd thought of attempting a Florida weave with them but just didn't trust them for the massive growth of my tomato patch. My small garden is mostly devoted to tomatoes and I moved in with a bunch of cages, so haven't had a need to test the endurance of the canes just yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: flickr set of my bamboo bamboo

Thanks Mia.

will the 40mil density be sufficient for either?

Chicken Coupe I don't think I would plant it if I were you. It depends on how much space you have. I wouldn't plant it in a lot in town for sure. I planted mine because I got it from the Master Gardener's sale in Springfield, MO. It is in their beautiful grass garden. Also in my old Steyermark Flora of Missouri it described it as rarely escaped from cultivation except in mining ground in Jasper county. It is stunning but I don't want mine to get much bigger.

I'm beginning to talk myself out of it. I don't have enough room for the projects I have in mind. It would be horrible if my back went out and I was unable to control it.

I think I might put out feelers for those who have it on their property and want it removed and I can use what I get.

Better for the environment.

I know someone. :)

For any other viewers: There is a bamboo seller in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Please be responsible.

http://www.bamboosatori.com/index.html

Bamboo Satori

Mia, I was thinking of you. Let me know okay? I really can use this stuff on my property. :)